Hellstorm
by 2 good 2 kill
Summary: A planet under siege of the Covanent is burned under they're wrath, but something darker and more sinister lurks below the private enterprise of the U.A.C.. Note this my first story so advice on writing and how to proceed with the story will be greatful.
1. Chapter 1

The scent of the burning flesh, and blood filled the air with its awful aroma. Tall majestic buildings that were once great lay in rubble. Blood seemed to be splattered everywhere.

The decaying city seemed to be lifeless except for the occasional sound of gun fire and the whine of plasma shots in reply.

"_This place is hell." _was the thought of the Sangheilian Spec. Ops. Soldier, his name was Zuka Vadumee.

He surveyed the carnage from atop one of the buildings that was miraculously still standing. From his vantage point he could see the human soldiers valiantly defend what little of the city remained against hordes of Covenant soldiers. Many had fallen on both sides, more so on the humans.

"Zuka, where are you?" barked the voice of the Spec. Ops. Commander, coming from Zuka's helmet.

Zuka touched the radio transmitter on his helmet and said "I'm atop one of the human buildings Commander."

"Zuka we have received orders to go to a human facility and find a team that went missing."

"Missing, what exactly do you mean by missing?" asked Zuka as he descended the many levels of the building.

"We received a report from the team saying they had entered the facility, that transmission was a day ago, they haven't reported back since then." replied the Commander.

"Then they're most likely dead." said Zuka as he exited the building.

"I know, but the Hierarchy gave us the mission anyways." said the Commander.

Zuka walked a little ways to his camp. As he entered the camp he could see grunts checking their breathing equipment, his Sangheili brothers were busy checking their weapons.

Zuka then entered the armory and grabbed his personal arsenal of a Particle Beam Rifle, a Plasma Rifle, a Needler, a few Plasma Grenades, and a Plasma Sword. He stowed his Beam Rifle over his back, the Plasma Rifle on his right leg, the Needler he put on his lower back, the Grenades were stowed on his belt, and the plasma sword was placed on his left leg. He then exited the armory and headed to his commanders outpost.

As he entered the outpost he could see the other members of his squad getting ready for the mission ahead. He also spotted his Commander talking with the Minister of Deceit and Punishment. The only twins of the San 'Shyuum race outside of High Charity.

"May I inquire as to what is so important that you have to send a Spec. Ops. unit, and a pair of hunters?" asked the Commander.

"I have sent you and your team on this mission to retrieve the team that went in there as well as something of great value to our war with the humans." said Deceit.

"What exactly is it that we need to retrieve?" said the Commander.

"Something of great importance, that's all I know." said Punishment.

With that said the Field Master turned and left, followed by his two Honor Guards.

"He's lying." said Zuka.

"I know, but we'll find our answers at the facility." said the Commander.

666

The wind blew lightly against Zuka's face. He rode on the wing of a Spectre. He turned to look behind him to see how the rest of the convoy was fairing. The other Spectre kept pace with his. In the back was a large, lumbering, transport vehicle called the Shadow. It carried the grunts and the hunter pair.

The hunters disturbed Zuka, not because they were walking tanks of death and destruction, but because hunters were only sent for two reasons. Reason 1 was that they were sent to kill everything, and reason 2 was that they were sent to retrieve artifacts of utmost importance to the Prophets A pair of hunters accompanied any team meant that the higher ups suspected there to be a lot of trouble.

They reached their destination without running into any humans. The facility was domed shaped. The black obsidian that surrounded the building reminded Zuka of some evil beast coiled and patiently waiting for its victim to come within range.

Zuka jumped off as soon as the Spectre came to a halt. He grabbed his beam rifle and scanned the building for any humans waiting to spring an ambush. He found none and proceeded to the buildings entrance. The other Unggoy and Sangheili followed shortly after. He came up to the door to see it completely sealed off by a metal barrier.

"Well have to find a different entrance." said the Commander.

The Commander than began giving orders to his soldiers to flank left and right of the building to find another entrance. However his orders would be in vain, as one of the hunters marched passed Zuka, lifted his foot and slammed it into the door sending it flying.

"Look, I found an entrance." said the hunter in a sarcastic tone, to the stunned Commander at the display of the hunters' strength.

The Commander quickly regained his composure and motioned for a few grunts and elites to enter the building. There was a tense moment as the others waited for the team that went in to give it the all clear. A lone grunt came back out a waved with his hand showing that it was all clear. Zuka moved in with the rest of the team and entered the building.

* * *

Place: A.I. containment facility.

Time: The instant the hunter ruefully knocked on the door.

"_Crap." _was the thought of the A.I., Aveon.

Aveon had enough trouble with the fact that she had somehow lost contact with the entire base because of the incident in Delta Labs. Now she had ghost signals appearing on her radar through out the base. The worst of all was that she had absolutely had no idea what the hell happened. The one thing Aveon hated more than the bastard Dr. Betruger, was not knowing what was going on.

Now that the Covenant showed up she would probably have to end up terminating herself to risk not being captured by the enemy. However, there was possibly another option. It was long shot, but maybe she could use these Covenant soldiers to find out what was happening, and if she held them off long enough she might be rescued by the UNSC marines. A plan began to form in her head, she smiled.

* * *

The Commander immediately sent a few of his troops to fan out and search the building. Zuka looked around the reception room and noticed that a few things weren't right about the situation and the room.

"Something isn't right." said Zuka.

"Oh, and what would that be?" asked the Commander.

"There are no plasma burns, bullet holes, or blood." said Zuka as he looked around the room.

"You assume that a fight would have happened here?" the Commander questioned.

"This would have been an excellent place for the humans to set an ambush. The balconies above would give their soldiers an excellent position of attack, their soldiers could also use the desk as a form of cover. Also the only entrance is the door we just came through, that would be an excellent choke point." said Zuka.

The other remaining Covenant soldiers looked around at the places Zuka described. A few grunts raised their weapons somewhat as if expecting an ambush.

"Also the biggest thing that annoys me about this place is that there are no alarms going off." Zuka stated.

"I know, if there was a breach, or for that matter an invasion going on there would definitely be an alarm going off." said one of the hunters in its warbled language.

The Commander was about to say something but was cut off by one of the grunts that came back from searching the building.

"Commander, we found something." squeaked the grunt in its high pitched voice.

"What is it?" the Commander grumbled.

"Me don't know." said the grunt.

"Follow me, I'll show you." said the same grunt.

The remaining squad followed the grunt through several rooms. They arrived in a circular room with an elevator at its center. The elevator was gigantic. They could fit the entire squad plus the hunters and still have room to spare.

"It appears as if most of the facility lies beneath." said the Commander.

"Zuka, Fusa, Juko, you three will descend first and secure the area beneath." the Commander ordered.

The three elites nodded to the Commander and got on the elevator. Zuka pressed the down button, the doors closed, and the elevator began its descent. Soft music played from the speakers of the elevator. The elites were tense the whole ride down. Fusa got so annoyed by the dull music that he shot the speaker with his plasma rifle. The other elites turned and glared at the elite for startling them. He just shrugged. Zuka rolled his eyes at the foolish elite and muttered something along the lines of "dumb ass."

When the elevator finally hit the bottom the elites charged out expecting an attack, but the only problem was that there was no attack. Zuka signaled them to fan out and secure the perimeter.

"Commander we have secured the lower floor." said Juko.

"Good, we'll be down their shortly." said the Commander.

The elites agonizingly waited for the elevator to bring the rest of the troops down. Zuka examined the lower room. It was another reception area. There were chairs and a desk, a sign blazed behind it with the human letters U.A.C. He went behind the desk and examined the computer screens. There were three screens, the one on the far left showed assignments of various personnel, the center one showed some of the receptionist's personal logs, the one on the far right showed different camera recordings. Zuka scrolled through the various camera views.

Zuka saw many different hallways, all of them were empty. There were absolutely no humans on the viewing screens. He saw a tab in the corner that read PREVIOUS DAY. He clicked on the tab and new images appeared. There were humans walking around going about their normal business.

As Zuka scrolled through the various images something caught his eye. It was a human demon staring at room filled with other humans that were discussing something. There was one human with a white coat, he looked like a doctor, another in a brown coat, and there was apparently one marine officer.

On Screen: Meeting Room

"I'm here because there seems to be some very serious problems." said the one in the brown coat.

"Oh, really? Do I need to remind you of the ground breaking work that were doing here?" said the one in the white coat.

"No, but I've been authorized by the board to look at everything." said the other human.

"The board authorized you? Hmm, the board doesn't know the first thing about science. All they want is something to make them more money. Some product. Don't worry they'll get their product." said the doctor.

"After how many accidents? Tell me Betruger. Why are so many workers spooked? Complaining, spooked, requesting transfers off the planet?" the human questioned.

"They simply can't handle life here. They're exhausted and overworked. If I had a larger, more competent staff, and a bigger budget. Even these few accidents could have been avoided." replied the doctor.

"I'm afraid you'll get nothing more until my report is filed with the board. I will need full access Doctor Betruger, Delta included. I won't have any difficulties doing this will I?" said the human.

"Only if you get lost Swann. Just stay out of my way. Amazing things will happen here soon. You just wait." the doctor said with venom in his voice.

"Let's go." the human said as he left with his military officer escort.

Back in the Lower Reception area.

Zuka shifted uneasily with what the doctor had said.

"_Are the things this man is talking about the reason behind the disappearance of the previous team, and why we haven't encountered any human resistance?" _Zuka pondered.

Zuka scrolled through the various cameras, but most of the cameras either showed static, or just showed a black screen. He then turned his attention to the various assignments of the staff, but found nothing interesting. After that he looked at the receptionist's personal log. Most of it was gossip, but there was one thing that did interest him. There was a log on missing personnel.

He looked in on the log and found something, very disturbing. There were logs on how people went into rooms and never came back, almost as if they had vanished. Another part of the log showed other personnel that were killed in numerous accidents.

Zuka left the terminals as soon as he heard the elevator platform land. He walked away from the terminal, to face the Commander. The grunts, and the other elites walked pass Zuka to secure the rest of the reception room.

"I think I know where we need to go." said Zuka.

"Where?" questioned the hunter before the Commander could reply.

"To Delta Labs." said Zuka.

666

Location: AI Room

Time: While Zuka reached was in the Main Lobby

Aveon watched one of the Elites look through the various terminals. She watched as he accessed different cameras, files, and logs. This elite was obviously very intelligent, because it understood the English language. He moved away from the terminals and met who appeared to be his Commanding officer, two hunters stepped off the elevator, and one of them addressed the elite.

"So they are going to Delta Labs....Perfect." said Aveon in childish voice.

666

"This is a breach in the **LAW!**"

"No it is not. There has been no angelic interference or demonic. It is completely the humans doing."

"They will not be able to survive _them_."

"They have come along ways since they were exiled from Eden."

"They are still not ready for the End War!"

"Let us consider this as a trial and gage their potential"


	2. Chapter 2

Jack was confused, and scared. Monsters had come and killed his parents. The only reason he was still alive was because his dad had sacrificed himself for Jack to get away. Now he was hiding in one of the cabinets in the Medical Ward. A few shadows had passed by his hiding place, but he didn't dare go out, because only God knew what was out there, that was if he was still here. He stifled a tear as the memory of his parents slaughter came back into his mind.

_Flashback_:

He and his mother were there visiting his father in his work place. They had passed through many halls with nothing much of interest, until the sirens started going off. Alarms screamed "Security Breach in Delta Labs. All Security Personal report to Delta Labs. His father had come running (from wherever he was) to meet them. He started to lead them back the way they had come.

Screams of pain and agony echoed in hallways as they ran. They came up to a locked door; his father quickly began to enter the access code.

"Once we get passed this door keep running to the elevator." his father said.

The door hissed open to reveal a hideous monstrosity before them. It had red slits for eyes, its arms were long and ended with nasty looking claws on each hand, its legs were as wide as tree trunks, and its tail ended in a sharp point.

The monster let out a loud growl and smacked his mother off her feet, she slammed against the wall with a loud thud, she didn't move. It then turned its attention toward him. He froze, the thing radiated evil, and raw power. If he tried to fight back he would die, if he tried to run the thing would catch him and kill him. There was no way he'd be able to survive. Then it moved slowly toward him, as if it enjoyed the mental trauma it was causing the boy.

That was when his father lifted a wrench and smacked the thing in the head. He kept whacking the thing, keeping it off balance.

"Run, Jack, run." bellowed his father as he continually pelted the beast.

He ran past the beast and into the next hall, he kept running, and running not really paying attention to where he was going. Gasping for breath he stopped, and walked back the way he had come.

He peeked his head into the hall where he had left his father in. His father's body lay on the floor headless. The monster had walked over to his mother's prone body, its right hand dripped blood.

"Please," his mother begged ", please don't harm my son."

The monster laughed at his mother's plea, and said in a raspy demonic voice "**PATHETIC**." With that said it impaled his mother with its tail, it raised his mother's face to its face, to watch the pain, and life be drained out of his mother. He screamed "MOMMY" in horror.

The beast turned its head to face the child. It threw his mother's corpse off its tail. He turned and ran, the beast following in pursuit. Screaming he ran, in a straight line, the creature slowly gaining on him.

He took a hard right through one of the other passage ways. The beast tried to make the turn, but its momentum carried it past the way the doorway the child had gone through. It slammed into a wall and let out a loud roar of pain. It was pissed and tired of this game of cat and mouse. Angrily the creature passed through the doorway.

Jack came upon an open ventilation shaft, and scrambled into it. The beast lunged at him in a last ditch effort to get him. Its jump was in vain, as it slammed into the wall. Jack stopped and turned his head to look at the beast.

It made eye contact with him, it reached with its claw to grab his shoes that were just inches out of reach. Jack turned back to the maze of shafts, and headed forward. Leaving the beast to bellow in rage, that its prey had escaped.

_End of Flash Back_

Jack stifled his cries, but he couldn't stop the cold tears from streaming down his face. He still couldn't believe that he had lost his parents.

666

Location: Lower Reception Area

Time: 4:05

Zuka waited patiently as grunts brought in equipment from above. The Commander was making the reception area his base of operations. Gun emplacements were set up in strategic positions, weapon containers were carried down from above, and computer terminals were set up and hooked into the human mainframe. The Commander supervised all of this from behind the desk. A grunt accidentally tripped and broke one of the terminals that he carried. The Commander gave a quick bark at the grunt, which had the stupidity of calling the Commander an asshole while he was in earshot, and received a kick in the rumpus. The grunt's flight ended when he smashed into his comrades that weren't fast enough to get out of his way.

Zuka ignored all this, his mind still revolved around the growing mysteries. Why wasn't there any evidence of the other team? Where did all the humans go? If the humans left why didn't they destroy the research facility? These questions greatly bothered him.

666

Location: Lower Reception Area

Time: 4:07

"_Why am I the one stuck doing this?"_ was the thoughtful question of Juju, a grunt,

Why the hell did he even take the bet? He had made a bet earlier with Zappa, another grunt. That Zappa was a bastard, well technically he was a dumb bastard considering he was foolish enough to piss of the Commander. The memory of that event brought a smile to his face.

Juju stared impatiently at the communication terminal, waiting for his break. There were no humans left here, and if there were he doubted that they would send out a message. He sighed, his boredom growing. That's when something caught his attention, on the screen there was a red light flashing. There was someone with them in the base trying to send a message, and the person wasn't Covenant.

"Commander, take a look at this." said the Juju.

"What is it?" he said as he walked toward him.

"Some one in the base is trying to send a message." said Juju hurriedly.

The Commanders eyes widened at what he said. He bent down low as if to confirm as to what he had said was true. Then he turned and addressed on of the elites that appeared to be deeply in thought, and said "Zuka I want you and a trio of grunts to go these coordinates."

The elite snapped back to attention and nodded to the Commander. Three other members of his species answered the summons of the elite and followed him to the coordinates the Commander had given the elite. Juju smiled and leaned back in his chair, there was nothing to worry about here, and those troops were going to care of the annoyance.

666

Zuka's concern's continued to grow as they went further into the labs. He was on edge because they hadn't encountered any resistance as he led the grunts through the facility. There just wasn't something right about this situation. The doctor's words still haunted him.

There was evidence of humans fleeing to the elevator, but the one thing that was really weird was the bloody hand prints on the walls.

"Did one of the humans injure himself as he fled?" he murmured to himself as he passed through the corridors.

As they descended further into the facility Zuka had turn the light on the side of his helmet to illuminate the path before him, as it was pitch black in some areas of the facility. The grunts behind him made little jumps to every sound that they heard in the facility. Zuka hated the grunts for the amount of noise they made, but had a nagging feeling that they were being watched. He checked his radar often to make sure that they weren't being followed.

"We are getting close, be prepared." said Zuka as he walked up a flight of stairs.

Zuka came up to a door labeled COMMUNICATION. He raised his hand indicating for the grunts to stop.

"Don't fire unless I give the order." said Zuka.

The grunts nodded in response. He stepped up to the door made whooshing sound as the door opened. He walked in, the grunts followed closely behind. In front of him was a human that was busy typing at a communication terminal.

"No, no." the human pleaded. "You must let me get this communication out. They have to be warned while there is still time. I can't let… You don't know what I've seen, you can't possibly understand, or comprehend. The devil is real. I should know... I built his cage." the human said.

"Human whom is this devil that you speak of?" asked Zuka.

"**PURE EVIL**." a demonic voice boomed.

The grunts looked around in fear. Zuka drew his plasma rifle, his eyes darted back and fourth looking for the one that had spoken.

The human back up to the terminal in fear, and said three words, "Oh, my God."

A booming laugh was heard, and all the lights went out. Zuka quickly turned on his light's to illuminate the darkness. He called out for the grunts to respond, they did from behind a desk that they had taken refuge. As he turned his attention back to the doctor, a light burst fourth from the center of the room. Red lighting crackled from the floor to the ceiling, human, elite, grunt, and other creatures' skulls that Zuka couldn't identify swirled around the lighting in a vortex like manner.

Zuka knew that only something bad was happening there. He turned around and grabbed the human. It made a cry of surprise, he ignored it, and leapt behind the desk that the grunts were occupying. He shoved the human to the ground and drew his Needler into his left hand. He then rose from his cover two weapons in his hands to face the weird skull creatures. What he saw however was a red swirling vortex, it looked kind of like a portal. Zuka readied his weapons, as something tall and ugly came through the portal.

The thing looked humanoid, but the thing before him was nothing close to any kind of species that he had scene. It was at least 7ft tall, it had two long arms that ended with deadly looking claws on it hands, and its legs were bulging with muscles. Its skin was a dark grey, and it looked more like body armor than actual flesh. White orbs dotted around its head.

Zuka wondered if those were the things eyes. His pondering came to and end however, as the wretched beast let loose a thunderous howl and leapt at him. He fired both of his rifles simultaneously. Needles pierced its flesh and exploded causing grey blood to spill upon the floor. His plasma bolts splashed against its body and melted flesh and bone. It was dead before it even hit the floor. Its corpse landed on the metal floor with a thud.

He approached the body slowly, both weapons trained on the prone body, just in case. The things eyes seemed to show the rage and bloodlust fade from its death. Zuka kicked the body in the gut with a swift kick.

Then something unexpected happened, the body faded into ashes. Zuka did a double take at this. He did another kick at were the body originally was to make sure the thing didn't have some camouflage technique. His foot hit nothing.

Zuka scanned the room for any tell tale sign of any other beastie that lay in wait. No monsters leapt at him, so he assumed the room was safe, for now. He turned his attention back onto the grunts and the human. Two of the grunts had weapons pointed at the human who cowered in fear more so of Zuka then the actual grunts. The other grunt hid underneath the desk afraid to come out.

"Well I'm glad to see not all of your species are cowards." said Zuka to the two grunts.

The grunts neither knew if what the elite said was a compliment, or an insult. Either way they decided that keeping their mouths shut was the best course of action, considering the fact that the elite had just killed a monster, and enraging him was not the best course of action.

Then Zuka bent down grabbed the human by the shoulder and lifted him to his feet. The human locked eyes with elite and stared at him in terror, Zuka stared at the human with eyes full of anger.

"Human you will come with us. That is if you want to live." Zuka stated flatly.

The human realized that it was more of a command than an offer. It nodded its head.

"Grunts, we will form a diamond pattern around the human." he said.

"You two will stay on the sides of the human." he addressed the grunts that had guarded the human.

"And you grunt," He said in a threatening voice to the grunt hiding under the desk, which was now hiding in fear of him instead of the monster, "you're in the back."

The grunt didn't say anything but it came out and nodded its head in fear. Zuka turned and motioned for them to follow. They exited the Communication room and went fourth into the darkness were enemies lurked around every possible bend, crevice, and pipe. Now however Zuka knew they hid somewhere, and he was ready for them…. he hoped.

666

Location: Unknown

Time: Unknown

Doctor Betruger stood before a massive wall of flames, not in fear like any mortal should have been, but in awe of the immense power this being possessed. The being need not speak to get its message across to Betruger, but he understood its frustration none the less.

"These beings are no threat to us my master." said Betruger.

The flames flickered in response.

"So what if the assignation did not work. We posses the artifact and not one of them is brave enough to enter the abyss to retrieve It." said Betruger.

"And if it comes to it I'll deal with the problem myself. They cannot stop our domination of their worlds!" shouted Betruger with glee that had been absent his entire life.

Demons of all sorts raised their arm, arms, wings, or any other appendage, and screamed to the red clouded sky above with devilish joy at the reaping to come. The flames lowered some what as if accepting this information.

"I will send more demons there to aid the others, in their battle." Betruger said to the flames.

"**GOOD," **the voices spoke from behind the curtain of flames, "AND DON'T** FAIL ME!"**

Betruger turned and his steed came down from its perch, it lowered its back for Betruger to climb on to its back. Once Betruger was on it propelled itself into the air. Betruger cackled insanely, for the bloodshed and horror to come onto the unexpecting mortals. If any got in his way they would die.

666

It was deathly quiet as the group made their way back to the base, all that could be heard was the gentle thrum of human machinery. They went at a steady pace, going fast enough to get out of there quickly, but slow enough to get there safely. After all panicking would do them no good.

Zuka held both the needler and the plasma rifle in his hands. He scanned each corridor and room they went through. A sense of foreboding rose in his gut with each room they went through. His heart hammered in his chest. Though he was worried, his face showed no signs of it, something that was drilled into him at a young age.

The grunts kept their weapons poised ready for any possible threat. At the center of the group the humans face showed plain and utter fear, he jumped at every noise. They kept going toward they safety of the base.

Zuka led the group closer to their destination. He checked right and left of the next room they had entered and continued on through. As he neared the next door he heard a loud thump as something large landed behind them.

The grunt in the back was pulled backwards and slammed on to the ground. It screamed as something wet and slimy pierced his throat. Zuka cursed at himself for being foolish as to not check above. He leveled both weapons and the best and launched a salvo of plasma at the creature, the grunts shot their own weapons as well.

The beast dropped the grunts body as it was thrusted back by the combined assault. Zuka now looked closely as the creature. It appeared to resemble a giant version of what the humans called a dog, this thing had: metal legs on the rear end of its body, its upper body was pinkish and huge with muscle. Its head was massive and filled with knife like teeth, and its front fore paws ended in sharp claws.

The beast roared at them in anger, and as if answering the howl of the beast three other creatures appeared on the balcony where the monster had staged its ambush. These creatures were about as short as the grunts. Their arms ended with scythe like weapons, and their skin was grey like the creature Zuka had killed before.

They hissed and disappeared in red lighting.

"_Where the fuck did they go!?" _Zuka thought.

His question was answered when he heard the cry of pain escape from the lips from one of the grunts behind him. He turned around, momentarily forgetting about the dog like creature, and shot the creature that had injured the grunt. The grunt fell to the ground as the beast faded to ashes.

As if angered by their comrade's death the remaining creatures leapt at Zuka. Zuka immediately jumped back, his body escaped the creatures attacks, but his plasma rife and needler were cut into pieces, and he threw the reaming pieces aside. Again they leapt at the weaponless elite expecting an easy kill, big mistake.

He kicked, and pinned one of the creatures to the floor with his foot. The second one he grabbed one of the creatures arms with one hand. With his free hand he grabbed the creature around the shoulder and violently ripped its weapon like appendage from its body. There was a sickening sound as the arm was torn from its body; red blood spurted out of the now useless stump. It screamed in pain.

With the scythe appendage in hand he sliced the neck of the creature beneath his foot. Then slammed his new weapon into the neck of the owner of his grisly weapon. Zuka stumbled a bit as the creature beneath his foot finally died, and faded away.

While Zuka finished off the monsters in a horrifying manner, the dog beast had taken the opening and batted the weapon from the grunt that was coming to Zuka's aid. The beast then pinned the grunt to the floor. It opened its gigantic maw, ready to end the grunt's life. The grunt however quickly grabbed the beast's upper and lower lip and held the creature teeth off, from ending his life. However it was a losing struggle on the grunts side as the jaws came closer, and closer. As if spurred on by the sudden realization the beast pressed harder, its teeth inches away from ending the grunts life.

Zuka turned to the sounds of the struggle, and leapt toward the monster. As he flew through the air, he realized that as the body of the dying creature faded away so did its arm that he held. He landed weaponless on the back of the monster. The creature jumped in surprise, giving the grunt enough time to scramble away.

The creature began to buck trying to rid itself of the elite. Zuka held on for dear life. With out thinking Zuka grabbed the upper and lower jaw of the creature and began to pull apart, the beast fought against him. They entered a stalemate, where neither one could get the jaws to move either way.

Zuka then kicked the beast in the side with his leg. The beast let out a grunt of surprise and pain, it momentarily slackened the muscles in its jaws. Zuka then took the opening to pull apart the jaws to their breaking point. The monstrosity let out a soft bark, as if asking for mercy.

Zuka showed none. With one final pull he ripped its mouth apart. There was a sound of flesh being torn as the skin on the side of its jaws snapped apart. The beast died of a broken spine at the base of its neck. Blood and spittle pooled onto the floor, from the monster's broken maw.

Zuka got off the creature's body before it faded away. He walked over to the fallen grunt who was gasping for air. The grunt looked at him he could tell in the grunts eyes' that it didn't want to die.

Zuka's hand brushed by the hilt of his sword.

"_It's better that he die now, than be left to be killed by those monsters."_ Zuka thought.

As if sensing his intent the human said "I'm a doctor, I can help him."

Zuka stared at the human, wondering why it was offering to save an enemy soldier. Surely the human knew that under other circumstances that it would have been dead a long time ago, whether he or one of the grunts killed it. Then again these were unusual circumstances.

"There's a medical facility down this corridor and to the right." the human said.

Zuka nodded, accepting the humans offer. He motioned for the uninjured grunt to carry its fallen brethren. The grunt didn't say anything, but hoisted his comrade onto his shoulder.

Zuka then picked up the plasma rifle from the dead grunts hand, and placed in his left hand. Then he grabbed his sword on the side of his belt and activated it. It made a hissing noise as the blade materialized. He nodded for the doctor to lead them to the medical ward. The doctor stepped toward the door, the grunts followed shortly after. Zuka covered the rear end of their group as they left the room of death, pain, and sorrow behind.

666

Jack heard the door to the room open. He covered his mouth to stifle his breathing, as a creature entered.

666

The human lead them to the medical ward, they ran into no more ambushes. It was about to enter, but Zuka grabbed the human before it could enter. It turned and was about to ask why he had stopped him, but Zuka held a finger up to his mouth signaling for him to silence. This was no easy task considering he held an ignited plasma sword in that hand.

He turned toward the grunt and motioned him to enter first. The grunt nodded and set his wounded comrade on the steel wall. It went through the door, plasma pistol at the ready. They waited patiently for the all clear.

The grunt came back and motioned for them to come in. Zuka grabbed, and lifted the wounded grunt with one arm and headed to the medical ward, the human followed closely behind.

The medical ward was different, then the rest of the facility. It had functioning lights, and no traces of blood, except for the human cadaver that had its insides displayed to the open air. Zuka set the grunt down one of the empty benches.

The doctor quickly grabbed some medical supplies out of one of the cupboards, and went to work to healing the grunt. Its comrade held its hand in his hand and told him wonderful things, and that he wasn't going to die.

Zuka ignored the weird drama that was displayed before him, because he heard the undisputable sound of some thing breathing in the cupboard behind him. His hand dropped slowly to his blade on his thigh. He grabbed it then whipped around and flung open the cupboard doors he reached in his free hand and pulled a squirming thing out. Stopping himself from completing the full swing of his blade, he realized that what he held in his hand was not a monster, but a human child.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for your reviews. I will make a greater effort at flushing out the minor characters. I guess I've worked to much on the main characters to develop a good profile on the others. Thanks for your reviews. And without any further delays part 3. I do not own Halo or Doom....dang it.

666

Zuka stared at the screaming human child in his hand. The child was screaming for his mother. Considering that the child was here and neither parent was no where in sight Zuka assumed that the youngling's parents were dead. It was a pity that the youngling had lost its parents, but intense screaming was wearing down on his nerves.

He shook the child violently, and roared "SHUT UP!"

The child looked at him with tear filled eyes and said "Please, don't kill me."

"I won't unless you keep screaming. Am I understood?" Zuka said.

The child simply nodded in response. Zuka then gently set the child down on the ground. It simply stared at him in wonder, fear, and confusion.

Zuka turned around to see the grunts and the doctor staring at him.

"Are you done?" Zuka asked the doctor.

The doctor recovered from his momentary lapse and went back to work on the grunt. While the doctor was busy working on the grunt, Zuka wanted to ask him a few questions, but he didn't want to distract him. So he turned his attention back on the child. The child eyes still hadn't left Zuka.

Zuka crouched down until he was eye level with the child. Their eyes locked on with each others.

"What is your name boy?" Zuka asked.

"Jack, Jack Bauer." Jack said.

"Where are your guardians?" Zuka said.

"You mean my parents?" Jack asked."

"Yes." Zuka responded.

"Dead, their dead." Jack said.

"What happened?" Zuka said.

"Me and my mom were going to visit my dad at work. We came in to this building, we traveled down the elevator, and went through many rooms. Alarms started blaring, my dad met us soon afterwards. I could hear people and monsters screaming as we ran. We nearly made it to the elevator, but we were ambushed by this monster. It knocked my mother unconscious, it would have killed me but my father fought the beast and told me to run. I did. Later on I came back, my father was dead, and it slowly killed my mother. She pleaded for the creature not to kill me, it ignored her and gave chase after me. I ran as fast as I could, it would have killed me but I was able to escape into an air duct. I then crawled out into this room and hid in that cupboard." the child said as tears streamed down his face.

The child then clasped his face in his hands. Zuka felt pity for the poor boy to have witnessed the slaughter. He sighed, he reached toward the boy to comfort him, but the child lunged toward him and embraced him in a hug. He was taken aback by this, for once he wasn't sure as to what he should do, so he did the only thing he could do he returned the child's hug.

Zuka ignored the youngling's tears that streamed down his armor, and held the youngling. He waited patiently for the human to end its crying.

* * *

Aveon looked at the medical ward camera and was surprised at what she saw. The elite was showing compassion to a child, and a human child at that. Then again the elite was trying to gain information so it was probably the only reason that the elite was hugging the child.

Her image shifted as she crossed her arms, a faint smile formed on her lips, and she cocked her head to one side.

"I guess I was right to choose you." she said aloud. "You do have a kind heart."

* * *

There was more than one being looking at the medical ward besides Aveon, it was Betruger.

He shook his head at the massive alien warrior and said to himself. "You are a fierce warrior, you've killed innocent people before, and you have followed the prophets' lies and orders with out hesitation. Also you've killed thousands in the names of your false gods. I know of your family, and the anger, the rage, the hatred that you bear deep down in your heart. Your heart is nearly as dark as my own. Why you show compassion for your enemy I will never know."

Betruger was invisible to all, so no one saw as he bent down toward the cadavers head and whispered words of great satanic power. He spoke even faster, giving instructions to his new puppet.

Then he spoke in English and said. "As soon as you get them out I'll have my minions finish them off."

With that done he walked into a portal and vanished back to the bowels of hell.

* * *

Betruger exited the portal to face three massive creatures that stood before the portal. These creatures were hellkights, the devils ultimate foot soldiers. The two that stood on the sides of the center one, were massive beasts, they stood around 10ft tall. There bodies were completely composed of muscle, they had gray body armor like flesh. They had no flesh on their faces, all they had was a skull, filled with pointy dagger like teeth. Bits of red flesh surrounded the top of the head a lower neck.

The hell knight in the center dwarfed his compatriots by 2 feet. This one was different because it was clad in black armor on its head, chest, back, arms, and legs. Evil runes carved on its armor glowed menacingly. An orange pentagram blazed on its chest.

"Go, kill them." Betruger said.

The demon bowed respectively toward him, it then turned and head through the portal, its compatriots followed soon after.

* * *

The child's tears streamed down his face, and on the warrior's blood stained armor. However the tears faded as he slowly gained control over his emotions.

"Are you done youngling?" asked Zuka.

The child sniffled a little and said "Yes."

"Good, can you tell me where your father worked?" asked Zuka.

"He worked in Delta Labs." responded Jack

"_Everything has to deal with Delta Labs. What exactly where theses humans working on?"_ Zuka thought to himself.

"I've finished working on him, we can leave now." said the doctor.

Zuka nodded then said "I need to ask you a few questions."

"I'll tell you all that I know." he said.

"Who are you, and what happened here?" Zuka asked the doctor.

"My name is , I'm one of the many scientists that worked in Delta Labs. I'm a top member of the scientist team working on teleportation." Ishii said.

"Teleportation?" Zuka said.

"Yes. I didn't think anything was wrong, that was until the incident. Oh, the fool I was to believe Betruger's lies." said Ishii as he clenched his fist.

"Tell me what happened?" Zuka said with more force in his voice than necessary, but he was eager to get the information.

"It all started when we used live experiments……"

_Flashback_

Ishii stared at the monitor ignoring the other scientists as they worked. Everyone was giddy with excitement, because today they moved onto live experiments. They had completed inanimate tests without any incidents.

"How is everything coming Ishii?" said some one behind him.

Ishii needn't turn to face the person behind him, he knew who posed that commanding voice. "All goes has scheduled Dr. Betruger." Ishii said without turning from his work.

"Good." said Betruger "Bring out the test subject."

The scientists obeyed his commands and brought out a small chimpanzee. It clung onto the woman that carried it. It's eyes were wide as it looked around, it pulled itself tighter against the woman's chest for comfort.

"_Don't worry little guy you'll be back in no time."_ Ishii thought to himself.

The woman opened the chamber and gently placed the monkey inside. She then closed the door and sealed the chamber. It came up close to the glass and followed the lady's movements.

"Begin teleportation sequence." said Betruger booming voice.

Scientists quickly moved about, making final adjustments. A red light surrounded the monkey, the monkey soon disappeared. The chamber next to the other began to throb a dull red. Then the being appeared in the chamber.

Many scientists gasped in horror as the monkey like creature began to bang on the glass. It was the exact same size as the chimpanzee that was in the previous chamber. The being posed no eyes, flesh had been peeled back of the head revealing a bone white skull. Most of the hair was grey, one hand was completely removed and replaced with a nasty blade. Its mouth had cruel curving fangs.

Ishii then turned to side and vomited onto the floor. Some had also vomited, others had fainted, and the ones that didn't do either stared in fascinated horror at the beast before them.

Cracks began to appear along the glass chamber, that's when one of the scientists had the bright idea to hit the alarm. A squad of 4 Spartan III's rushed into the chamber. The beast broke at and leapt at the woman that had brought in the chimpanzee. One of the Spartans raised a shotgun and with 8 Gauge shell blew the lower half of the thing apart, blood and gore rained upon the floor.

The most gruesome thing that Ishii found about the situation was that the monkey monster was still alive crawled on one hand at the stunned lady. That was until the Spartan with the shotgun walked toward it, lifted the weapon, and shot it in the back of the creature's skull. Blood, bone, and brain matter flew up from the force of the shell and rained upon the floor.

"I want a containment team in here now Eliza." said Betruger to one of the female scientists taking control once again.

The woman only nodded, then ran out of the room not looking back. Betruger then turned to face the Spartan with the shotgun.

"Jordan, I gave you an order to preserve any, and all live experiments!" Betruger roared at him.

"The 'live experiment' was threatening the lives of one of your scientists, so I did what I had to, too preserve human life." the Spartan named Jordan said in a calm manner to the already furious Dr. Betruger.

"I gave you an order and I expect to have it followed to the letter."

The Spartan merely turned around and head out the door saying "My name is Gamma 267."

Betruger turned to face another of the Spartans and said "I want him to understand who's in charge around here, Martha!"

"Damn ONI interfering with things greater than their understanding. They gave me Security Spartans and they didn't bother to mention that they were SPARTAN IIIs. And to top it off one of them is an Armageddon class Alpha! Oh how humanity has has fallen to halt the progress of scientific advancement! Maybe we do deserve to be exterminated." he muttered not caring that all of the Spartans had heard him. So what if they reported to their masters at ONI? Life would soon fall to the forces of Antilife.

"I'll talk to War." the female Spartan spoke, calling 267 by his alias.

She turned and the others followed after her. They headed out the door.

"I want to know what happened." said the angry doctor to the still stunned scientists.

The scientists looked around, as if coming out of a trance, and went about their jobs not believing what had happened.

"_What the hell just happened?"_ was the thought that raced through Ishii's mind.

In fact, it was the thought on everybody's mind.

End of Flashback

Everyone in the room stared at the doctor as he finished his tale, some had expressions of horror, others had shock, but the elite was still agitated.

"That was a very informative story, but I need to know why these things are here!"

"I'm getting to that." the doctor responded.

"Then hurry up, I don't think we have much time left."

The doctor continued his story.

* * *

"The incidents started as soon as we moved on to human trials. Really freaky shit started happening. Some humans that went through ended up missing body parts, others looked like they were viscously mauled, there was even this one incident where this guy lost his tongue and drowned in his own blood. The humans that came back whole were mentally unstable and began attacking people. After they were successfully restrained they babbled on about that _they_ were coming and that we couldn't stop _them_." Ishii shivered at the memory "But the monsters were unleashed yesterday. When we used another human, this time a portal was opened and something came through……"

_Flashback_

The guy stood in the chamber grinning like a fool. It was another human trial that Betruger had requested. Scientists that were normally enthusiastic about the work moved like robots, no thought, no talking amongst themselves, just going through the motions they had done so many times.

"_What new horror will we witness today?"_ Ishii thought.

"How long until we're ready?" Betruger said with some joy in his voice.

"We'll be ready shortly, Malcolm." said Ishii.

"_What the heck are you so excited about doctor?" _was the thought on Ishii's mind.

"Good, I want everything to go smoothly." Betruger said as he rubbed his hand together.

A couple of minutes went by as the scientists made final perpetrations. One of the scientists nodded in Betruger direction, signaling that preparations were complete.

"Ishii, start the sequence." Betruger said.

Ishii said nothing but tapped in a few commands beginning the teleportation sequence. A soft humming filled the air as machines gathered power. A red light surrounded the guy and he disappeared. The same dull light filled the adjacent chamber, the guy reappeared, with no missing limbs (that was visible), and didn't start acting like a madman. He looked around in amazement, as if he had done it.

"_Have we finally perfected the teleportation sequence?"_ Ishii wondered.

Then the man's face contorted in pain, and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"_Guess not."_

The guy's body rose as if he was being hoisted by invisible strings. Medical Professionals that were rushing to the man's aid stopped and stared in horror. Everyone stared in horror, except for Betruger who wore a smile, and said "They come."

A dark red light came from the mans chest as a vortex ripped away his flesh from the inside. The same dark light exited the mans eyes and mouth as he held his head back in a silent scream of agony. Red lightning issued fourth from the vortex, burning holes and searing flesh in the unfortunate people that stood in the path of the blasts. One lightning blast hit an energy chamber causing it to explode. People were sent flying, the unfortunate ones in the blast radius were lit on fire and ran around screaming in pain.

An alarm blared signaling containment failure. The Spartan III's entered but soon took cover behind the walls of the entrance. Scientists that could run or limp headed toward the now open door. Ishii was one of the few that could still run and he ran like he never ran before to the now open door. Once he was in the safety of the hallway he peeked around staring at the room breathing rapidly.

Betruger stayed behind cackling insanely as the scientists fled. He turned to face the portal that was beginning to stabilize. The man's bone and flesh formed a circular gate. The portal looked like a circular pond of blood. Monstrous figures marched fourth. One of the humanoid beasts marched over toward one of the scientists that was crawling toward the door. The beast raised a massive leg, intending to crush the man beneath it.

A loud bang issued, and the beast fell back headless. More sounds of gunfire issued from the Spartans that rushed forth, the monsters fell against the hail of gunfire. Other creatures came out of the portal charging at the Spartans, only to fall and die.

One of the creatures batted an assault rifle out of one of the Spartans hand and tackled it to the ground. The creature roared at its pinned prey, sending spittle onto the Spartans visor. Its head lowered ready to sink its teeth into the Spartans neck. When the beast head was millimeters from the Spartans head, its head exploded showering blood and brain matter onto the Spartans visor.

"Did you have to wait until the last second 267?" said the Spartan as it picked up its assault and rejoined the fight.

"No, I just wanted to get you back for setting the default of the coloring of my armor to pink 253." 267 said as he reloaded.

The other Spartan laughed at his brother's comment as he blew the head off one of the beasts. Bodies of the fallen creatures started to pile up making barriers for the advancing monsters. Unfortunately for the defending Spartan's the bodies faded to ash to quickly to stall the monsters for long.

"This is getting us no where." one of the feminine Spartans yelled as she reloaded her SMG.

"282 is right. 267 and 253 I want both of you to throw a pack of C15 at the portal. Me and 282 will provide cover fire as you guys fall back. Once were behind the door I'm setting off the detonator." said 234.

There were a series of "Yes sir." as the various Spartans went to do there various tasks. 257 and 253 advanced toward the portal blasting holes into the beasts. While 234 and 282 headed back toward the door.

"We're in position." 234 said through the com.

"Roger, that." 267 said.

267 nodded over toward 253, 253 nodded back signaling that he understood the message. 267 reached into his belt and extracted a brick like object, and tossed it at the portal. It landed with soft thud, along with another as 253 threw his. They both turned and ran, with monsters on their heels. Bullets flew over their heads hitting their desired targets as 234 and 282 fired.

267 was the first through the door followed shortly by 253. The door hissed as 282 closed it, temporarily sealing the monsters inside. 234 turned to stare at the Ishii who had retreated back a ways down the hallway. She didn't give Ishii warning as she easily picked him up, and started running. No order was necessary, all Spartans ran as if the Devil himself were on there heels (which wasn't far from the truth). Once they were a ways away 234 extracted a detonator and pushed the red button on top.

"**FIRE IN THE HOLE!"**

There was aloud KABLAM as the C4 went off annihilating the creatures within. The lights flashed and went out as additional explosions went off as combustible materials exploded. Loose equipment fell to the floor.

Spartan 234 shoved Ishii to the ground, and then covered him with her body. The other Spartans had already hit the deck.

They were surrounded by total darkness for a few minutes. Then the flickered and came back on. Spartans groggily rose from their positions.

Ishii removed his hands from his hears and rose to as 234 got off him.

"I want you to run toward the lift." said 234.

He merely nodded, turned and ran.

* * *

"And so I ran." Ishii said as he finished his tale.

Zuka stared at him quickly processing this information. The grunts and the child had gathered around the doctor and stared at him with childish amazement as he finished his tale.

Zuka reached up to the com unit on his helmet and touched the speaker button to contact the commander but only received static. Concern spread across his face.

"We're moving out." Zuka said to the group.

At first they didn't respond but a furious glare from Zuka quickly sent them into action.

"I'll go first, then you humans, and you grunts shall cover the rear."

The grunts got behind the humans. Zuka ignited his sword and leveled his rifle and headed out the door. None of them noticed the cadaver's heart slowly beating. They didn't notice as the cadaver raised its body off the bench, its mouth opening and closing hungrily. Its hands extended to one of the diminutive figures.

Zuka looked left, right, and above looking for any threats. He glanced at his radar to see if he had missed anything. There were 5 blips directly behind him.

"_There are the two humans, the two grunt…shit."_

Zuka turned back on the group, to see the cadaver extended its arms toward the human youngling. He fired his plasma rifle at its face. The boy ducked in alarm, the undead cadaver fell back.

Zuka jumped at it his sword pointed at its body. It rolled away as he landed. The thing then slammed into him. His plasma rifle flew from his hand. It pinned him to the ground. The horror opened his mouth ready to feast.

The thing was abnormally strong, but no where as strong as an elite. Zuka wrestled with the creature on until he was on top. It still continued to struggle but it was all in vain. With the cadaver chest open to the air, it was simple for Zuka to literally rip out its beating heart.

Zuka reached into the cadaver's body, grasped its beating heart, and ripped it out. Veins and arteries sprayed blood onto Zuka's already blood stained armor.

"You hungry, you ugly fucker, then eat this!" said Zuka as he forced the heart down its throat.

It went into a spasm as its blood pooled onto the floor. Then finally it stilled. Zuka then sliced the body in half with his energy sword.

"Isn't that a little excessive?" asked Ishii.

"No."

"That thing was exactly like a zombie." said the stunned Jack.

"A zombie?"

"The living dead that eat the flesh of us mortals." said Ishii in a semi-sarcastic tone of voice.

"Good definition."

Zuka then exited back out the door, did a double check of area, and then motioned for them to follow. They didn't know what horrors they were about to face.

* * *

"_This-- that can not be possible."_ Aveon thought to herself.

She was viewing and reviewing the video feed that played before her "body". The reanimated corpse got up and started attacking the group. It was absolutely amazing and terrifying at the same time. It was true that soldiers had been brought back from the dead, but that had been through technology. This thing had started moving on its own, without any form of technology or involvement. What disturbed her even more was the doctor's tale.

"_Betruger you traitorous bastard, what exactly have you unleashed!? When I get out of here you are going to rot in hell! But…if it goes they way I want it to go, my little pet will probably do something far worse to you then he did to that zombie thing."_

* * *

Gamma 267 sealed the room as soon as he entered Delta Labs Medical Ward. His SPI armor quickly blended into the dull gray colors of the walls. With his shotgun at the ready he quickly he searched the room for any hostiles, he found none. He sat down on one of the benches, tilted his head back, and thought _"Why the fuck did I get stuck in this mess? I should be out behind the Covenant lines giving humanity a chance at survival. Not here guarding the techies and spying on a madman."_

There was a dull thump just outside the door he came in from disrupting him from his thoughts. He grabbed his shotgun and pointed it at the door, his breathing and heart rate quickened as adrenaline flowed through his veins. Steadily he approached the door. Nothing happened. With his enhanced hearing he heard footsteps, many foot steps, heading away from his position.

He made a mental sigh of relief, but was still tense. Grabbing various objects he began to make a makeshift barricade. Once he was satisfied he laid down upon one of the remaining benches, closed his eyes, and embraced the blessed darkness of sleep.

666

"This cannot go on!" spoke a voice that had known the dawn of man befor the others.

"I don't see why you object." spoke one of the three.

"Are you serious? The other demon lords are begginning to stir. They know that the Lord of Antilife is moving his forces."

"They know and they do nothing." spoke one with curved horns and knew all of cruelty.

"Our messengers are swift and powerful." spoke the final third.

"If the Creator knew he would not approve of your _meddlesome _trial."

"If he does he does nothing." responded the one with horns.

"He moves with time he knows all possible outcomes. Or have you forgotten, Old One?"


	4. Chapter 4

2677 slowly awoke from his sleep. He stared groggily around his surroundings, he looked at his HUD, and there weren't any blips on it. Still he kept his shotgun close at hand. Like his tutor Ambrose had taught him to never trust equipment.

He strained his ears to hear if there was any one or any thing in his vicinity. Only rumbling machines met his ears. Touching one of the buttons on his helmet he tried various radio signals to get some one. All he got was static.

"Damn." he said to himself.

He continued to check various radio signals. Nothing came of it, he had nearly given up hope until he got a response.

"Hello?" a feminine voice spoke from the speakers

"Who is this?"

"I'm Aveon, the A.I. for this base. Who are you?"

"I'm Spartan 267 of Gamma Company."

"Spartan 267, where are you, what it your situation?"

"I'm currently hiding out in one of the Medical Research Labs. I've barricaded myself in.

"Are the others with you?"

"No." he said in a deadpan tone of voice.

"Do you know where they are?"

"No. we got separated."

"Hmm…"

"Do you know what happened? Why this is happening?"

"Unfortunately I do. Betruger has betrayed us by releasing something. Also by us I mean every living thing in existence."

"Betruger…" 267 clenched his fists "I'm going to kill that piece of shit."

Spartan 267 began to tear apart his barricade bit by bit. He started throwing objects out of his way. His anger flowed through his veins, screaming for the murder of Betruger.

"Spartan I order you to calm down!"

"Excuse me?" 267 said in a voice that had gotten him the nickname War. A voice that represented the part of him that was pure rage and uncompromising military intelligence. A voice that represented a will stronger than diamond. A voice that belonged to his alias name War.

"Since all military leaders are gone, I am now in charge. I order you to calm down."

He grasped the metal rod so hard that it bent under his furious grip. Finally he made a sigh and let go of the bar.

"What would you have your Spartan do?" he said collecting himself.

"I want you to head toward the Advance Weapons division and get some serious fire power."

"Yes ma'am. Will there be anyone there?"

"The cavalry will be there shortly. That is if everything goes as planned."

* * *

**FABOOM!** Was the sound as a plasma grenade exploded killing the zombie that it had stuck to, along with the ones unfortunate to be in the blast radius.

"Damn it. Where do all of these things keep coming from?" Zuka questioned as he shot, burned, sliced, cleaved, and exploded the walking dead that surrounded him.

"We're all going to die!" one of the grunts squealed as it fired its plasma pistol into the horde of zombies.

Bodies of the dead began to pile up, blood was splattered on nearly every possible angle. It was an endless battle as the creatures kept coming and coming. Zuka fought hard, slowly moving forward as he killed and killed. It seemed like whenever one of the things died another would take its place. Dozens of them fell under the Covenants onslaught.

The battle lasted for what seemed like hours. Then like the water on a faucet being turned off the battle ended with the Covenant soldiers standing above the smoldering bodies of the dead that had been killed again.

"I thought that they would never end." said Zuka.

"Can we get moving before more of them show up?" said Ishii.

"Me believe that to be a great idea." squeaked one of the grunts.

"Gladly." Is everyone here?"

"Here" said one grunt.

"Can we get moving please?" said the other.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." said Jack

"Still amongst the living, unfortunately." said Ishii.

"Good, then lets move." said Zuka.

They continued moving, hoping not to encounter any other monstrosities. The breath of the warriors breathing was labored.

"How long till we get there?" asked Ishii exasperated.

"Not much farther. We should be their momentarily." said Zuka.

Each hallway was they entered was brightly lit, and the walls weren't even blood stained, which was odd considering the dark bloody corridors that they had encountered earlier. It was filling Zuka with uneasiness, was their enemies preparing them for some sort of ambush or had they truly eliminated all of their enemies in their path.

On they continued hallway past hallway, not encountering any sort of enemy. The annoying, unstoppable, hum of human machinery met their ears.

Zuka halted in front of a door causing the others to halt behind him. The room that stood before them was pitch dark except for the occasional ominous sputter of the lamps that swung overhead.

Zuka shifted uneasily, he his tuned back to the group and said "Stay close."

With that said he lifted his plasma rifle and headed through the door, followed shortly by Jack. Ishii was heading through, and then with clank the door slammed close sealing Jack and Zuka inside.

* * *

Zuka and Jack whipped around to see the door close in Ishii's face. Jack slowly backed into Zuka's leg. Fear spread across his face. The light above them stopped swinging, and stopped sputtering on and off.

"Well what do we have here?" said a demonic voice behind them.

Zuka turned to face this new creature, but Jack didn't. He recognized the voice, it belonged to the monster that slaughtered his parents.

What Zuka saw was three identical monstrosities standing before him. Each had red glowing eyes, horns extended from their heads. Their mouths were abnormally wide, they're bodies were dark red, they had long hands with six fingers that ended in long curving claws. Another thing they posed large webbed feet that ended in spike like toe nails. The thing that he was the most worried about was their tails that in ended in a long spike.

"Prey." said one in a raspy voice.

"The only prey here is you abomination." said Zuka calmly.

"Flesh." said the other.

"No, you face a warrior that is going to rip your throats out."

"You will die." responded another.

Zuka responded by growling at them a sending a burst off from his plasma rifle. The creatures scampered into the darkness avoiding the waves of plasma. Everything became really quiet. All that was heard was the hum of the plasma sword and Jack's subtle cries.

"Don't worry I'll protect you." said Zuka without turning to face the boy that clutched onto his massive leg.

"_Come on take the bait."_

Zuka smiled as his plan to draw them out worked perfectly, as he saw a blip on his radar appear behind him. One of the creatures let out a shriek as it went to deliver a killing blow on Jack. As it closed in Zuka whipped around, with Jack surprisingly holding on his left leg, let the beast pass him. In the same movement he swiped the feet out from under the beast, and then he brought his elbow down on the spine of the creature as it was in midair. It fell face first onto the metal floor with a loud thud. He finished off the creature with a burst from his plasma rifle.

The plasma rifle hissed as it overloaded, another of the creatures rushed out of the darkness at him. He smacked it with overheated rifle burning the flesh on its face. While it cried in pain he sliced it across the abdomen. It turned to face him eyes full of hate and surprise, it made an attempt to say something but it fell back in two.

"_Two down, one more to go. Now where's the third…"_

A loud cry distracted from finishing his thought as the last creature jumped down from above. Before he could fire off a shot it was on him. They fell back, Jack flew off as Zuka's foot went into the air. Zuka's plasma rifle skittered across the metal floor.

The beast came out on top. Zuka's plasma sword moved back forth between him and the beast's neck as the fought to force the blade to pierce their opponents flesh. Zuka pressed harder forcing the blade closer to its neck. Deciding that the beast could not win the struggle on brute strength, it resorted to lifting its tail above Zuka's head. Sensing that this would be the final struggle Zuka roared at the beast in anger and defiance. The tail began to descend.

"You will not take another!" Jack screamed as he fired Zuka's plasma rifle.

The beast was forced off of Zuka on the first shot. It rolled and turned to face its former prey, Zuka had also rolled out of the danger zone as well.

"This is for my mother!"

He shot, hitting it in the leg.

"This is for my father!"

He shot, again hitting it in the chest. It roared in pain.

"Now die!" he screamed as he pulled down on the firing stub sending a hail of plasma at the beast.

It roared in agony as he each plasma bolt hit it burning its flesh. Jack kept firing until it over heated, he continued screaming at him in pure fury. The beast stared at Jack in disbelief at the prey turned predator, and then it fell forward dead. Jack continued to stare at it, he fired again at its corpse.

"That is enough." said Zuka in a gentle tone as he touched Jack's shoulder.

Jack turned to face him and Zuka took the cumbersome rifle out of the child's hands. Jack stared at him with tears streaming down his face, he then grasped Zuka around the torso, and cried. Zuka lifted the boy so Jack could hold him around the neck. The boy still cried.

He then turned to open the door to let a very startled Ishii and grunt soldiers to stare at the massive elite soldier holding the small crying boy.

* * *

267 steadily made his way toward the Advance Weapons division, his shotgun at the ready. He scanned each room carefully as to not walk into an ambush. His heart beat was very calm considering the dangerous situation he was in. Once in awhile he'd get a brief flicker on his radar, he supposed the enemy was trying to make him more at ease as to the fact that they didn't think that they knew that he was still alive, but he didn't fall for it.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVNNNNNN.

The Spartan twirled to where the noise was to see a man holding a bloody chainsaw.

"_Whew, I thought that was some sort of….why is this guy still alive?"_

The man's appearance was an utter mess. His shirt was torn, and covered in blood. Another weird thing was how the jaw hung so low, along with the eyes that looked like no one was home.

The man raised the chainsaw.

"Please put down the chainsaw, I am here to hell…" the man charged him "No, no, no." he fired the shot gun at chest level. The man's upper torso was completely disappeared in a red mist.

"_If the eyes are the window to the soul than this guy had none."_

"Enemy located."

The Spartan immediately jumped from the spot that he was momentarily occupying, once heard the word "enemy". Bullets whizzed past his head, pinging against the walls. 117 wheeled around and fired at the place he guessed his assailant position.

The bullets hit flesh, spraying blood onto the walls. His assailant landed on the floor with left half of its upper body missing.

"_Why is everyone obsessed with killing me?"_

267 stared at the missing remains of a UNSC soldier. It wasn't very pretty.

"_If he said enemy located, then that must mean he was …damn."_

267 began to run, heading toward the indicator on his HUD. Other weird humans began to jump out at him but he blew them apart, reloading when necessary. He came across other UNSC soldiers, wielding various weapons. It was kill or be killed, he used his superior speed to evade their shots, and to blast them apart. Taking advantage of the fallen soldiers' weapons, he scavenged an: Assault Rifle, Grenades, and ammo for both weapons.

He didn't even think as he evaded and killed his opponents, his mind was in the stage of Zen-no-thought. Action, and reaction.

He entered into another of the larger rooms, and was absolutely astounded at what he saw. Walls were covered in some fleshy growth. A large red dot on his motion sensor brought him back to reality.

He stared at some ugly creature tying up a dead human corpse in a silky thread. When the creature was finished with its work, it recognized him standing there and took an aggressive stance.

267 was absolutely dumbfounded at what he was staring at. The things lower torso was like a body of a spider, it upper part looked feminine. Well he assumed it was feminine based upon the breasts on its chest. Whatever the thing was it wasn't human, and that was good enough for him to kill the beast.

It charged him, he fired his shotgun in reply. No matter how many rounds he put in to it, it just refused to fall. Coagulated diseased blood poured down the wounds that the creature had taken. At some point it must have decided that it had sustained too much damage, it hissed at him and retreated up the walls.

The growth on the walls began to pulsate faster and faster. Some thing, many things, exploded out of it. It was more spider-like creatures, these ones seem to posses a human head, and many spiny legs.

"How many," the spider creatures ran toward him with deadly intent "of you" he switched to his assault rifle "do I have to kill?" he hosed them with 8mm of bullets.

The things just seemed to explode as the rounds tore through them. Onward the creatures rushed ignoring the bodies of their fallen brethren. He tossed a grenade into the mass destroying most of the creatures, he mopped up the survivors with a quick burst from his assault rifle.

"Now where did the queen bitch go?"

As if to answer his question the beast leapt of the wall behind him, with the intent to crush him. 267 acted immediately by jumping forward out of its reach, not before dropping a grenade where he was originally standing. The beast's eyes widened with surprise as it landed on top of the grenade.

**FABOOM**

The grenade exploded searing the creature with immense heat, and sending shrapnel ripping through its body. It still refused to fall down.

"What the hell does it take to kill you?" he screamed at it.

It screamed and to answer its call more of mini spider creatures came out. He sprayed them with his assault rifle. The creature retreated limping up the wall screaming the entire time. While he was blasting apart the bugs that scuttled toward him, an idea occurred to him.

He grabbed a grenade on his belt and tossed it above the spider creature. It grinned at him as if he was a fool. Behind his face plate he was grinning. The grenade exploded loosening the heavy metal ceiling. Heavy debris crashed down on the spider thing squashing it against the floor. Its body was twitching. 267 wasn't sure if it was dead or not so he blasted the head off, it stopped twitching. After that it was easy to kill off the remaining spider creatures.

"I'm going to need some serious fire power." he said to himself.

He reloaded and continued onward to his destination.

666

"See the mortals are putting up a strong resistance." spoke the one with horns.

"You allowed the forces of Antilife to take the weapon back to their realm!" the Old One spoke.

"Hmm…perhaps further testing is necessary?" the wisest of the three.

"Yes, but we should send the riders and out allies in the Dark Realm to acquire the weapon." stated the strongest of the three.

"Well you are debating the forces advance unhindered and only a few know of the danger and even fewer understand it." spoke the Old one. "Your trial has gone too far it upsets the perfect balance that you try so hard to maintain. The angelic forces are readying their swords and they will strike when the opportunity arises."

"DO NOT FORSAKE YOUR PLACE! The balance still holds! The angels and the remaining demonic forces shall not move until the seals are broken."

"For your sake I hope your right."


	5. Chapter 5

**Zuka lead his group back into the safety of the Covenant base.**

"**What took you so long, and who are they." said the Commander as he stormed over to Zuka.**

"**We encountered enemy resistance. These are my prisoners."**

**Ishii and Jack stared at him when he mentioned the word prisoners.**

"**Why didn't you tell me?"**

"**And let you hog all the kills? I think not, Commander."**

"**You mean to say that you could have called in for reinforcements?" squeaked one of the grunts in anger.**

**Both elites ignored the grunts fury.**

"**How many humans did you encounter?"**

"**None, besides these two."**

"**Then what enemy did you encounter?" the Commander asked thinking that Zuka was fooling with him.**

"**The undead or zombies, along with a few other monsters."**

"**Undead, Monsters?" the Commander asked dumbfounded at what he was hearing.**

"**I know it's hard to believe, but these humans have unleashed something."**

"**It was Betruger, not us." said Ishii.**

"**Oh, and what did this Betruger unleash?" the Commander said now turning his attention toward Ishii.**

"**The traitorous prick, has released the devil from his cage, and unto us." said Ishii with a tremor of fear in his voice, and it wasn't because of the piercing glare of the white clad elite.**

"**Devil?"**

"**Prince of Darkness, The Horned One, Luchipher, Lucy, Ugly Son of a Bitch? Any of them ring a bell?"**

"**Doesn't matter. If he gets in the way of the Great Journey we'll just have to eliminate him." said Zuka.**

"**Right, now how do plan to do that?" asked Ishii.**

"**Through superior fire power." Zuka responded as if it was the simplest thing in the world.**

"**Now what are we going to do about you." said the Commander turning toward both humans.**

"**They are my prisoners, and they are my responsibility." said Zuka.**

**The white clad elite looked between the two groups and shrugged.**

"**Treat them as how you see fit." said the Commander over his shoulder as he walked away.**

"**Thank you, Excellency. Grunts you are free to do as you wish, I'll call for you when the next mission comes up"**

**The grunts looked at each other, their faces full of fear. They clearly didn't want to go out to face the monsters, especially with the more terrifying elite.**

**Zuka turned toward them and motioned for them to follow. The humans closely followed Zuka. Other Covenant soldiers turned to stare as the group passed, but a quick glance from Zuka sent them back to their tasks. They obviously didn't want to piss off an elite whose anger far exceeded that of the Commander's. He led them to a cell that had been erected in case there were any prisoners. **

"**This will be your cell."**

**Jack moved into the cell, his face crestfallen. Ishii was about to head through, but Zuka grabbed him.**

"**You'll join him shortly but there is something I want you to do."**

"**What exactly would that be?"**

**Zuka turned around, the doctor followed after. They approached the desk.**

"**I want you to get into your mainframe through this."**

"**Why should I? You'll just end up killing us."**

"**I'll spare you and the youngling's life if you help us."**

"**Why should I trust you?"**

"**Believe me doctor, if I didn't think that you could help me in some way. You'd be dead." said Zuka in a venomous tone.**

**Ishii let loose a sigh. "I'll get on it."**

**He walked past Zuka and began to work on the computer. Zuka headed past one of his fellow elites and said "Watch the human." The other elite nodded his response and took a position behind Ishii. **

**Zuka head over toward one of the food dispersal units, to get something to eat. He met the Commander there.**

"**So why didn't you go to Delta Labs while I was away?" said Zuka as he filled a cup with a substance that vaguely resembled coffee.**

"**We got orders from the hierarch to wait for the arrival of more troops that they sent." said the Commander in a sarcastic tone.**

"**Why is that so bad? We could always use a few more troops." he said as he sipped the drink.**

"**They're sending brutes."**

**The drink sprayed out of Zuka's mouth, landing on a few of the grunts that were in the radius of the spray.**

"**Brutes!?" Zuka said through his coughing fit as he recovered from spraying the drink.**

"**Apparently the remaining Minister thought it was wise to add brutes to our ranks." the Commander said with evident sarcasm.**

"**Remaining Minister? What do you mean by that?"**

"**Well apparently the Prophet of Regret has found one of the great Halos. Nearly every fleet, except ours, has been gathered to secure the ring. The Minister of Deception has remained behind, he believes our mission to retrieve a Forerunner artifact has been deemed to high a priority for us to join our brothers. Don't worry though they won't start the Great Journey without us."**

"**Forerunner artifact, huh. So that's what were after."**

**Zuka thought for a little bit before saying to the Commander "If the Minister commands us not to join in the defense of the Halo ring, then what were after could just be as important as the Great Journey itself."**

"**Yes, I have all ready determined that."**

"**Honorable Commander, the brutes have arrived." squeaked on of the white armored colored grunts.**

"**Great." both of the elites said in unison.**

**The Spec Ops Commander headed off toward the elevator. He paused as he waited for it to descend. It took awhile for the elevator to take the kilometer drop, the elevator too screeched to halt as it hit the bottom.**

**Brutes were massive beasts. They were simian in appearance, but posed the facial features of a rhinoceros, and the anger of one to. The average height for a brute was roughly 2.9 meters tall. Hair color was determined mostly by the location by the brute was born, white for polar regions, brown for forest regions, and so on . Their prodigious strength and brutal savagery made them valuable assets of the Covenant.**

**On the elevator stood the massive brutes. On the sides of the elevator were 20 infantry class brutes with there blue colored amour, they were armed from with various weapons ranging from a Plasma Rifles to their favored Spikers. Behind them were 5 brute captains, their green amour gleamed in the human lighting. All of them armed with brute shots. In the third row where 2 brute stalkers, their grey amour with the helmet made them look like a Cyclops. In the center were 3 massive brutes. In the middle stood a minor brute chieftain, the most intelligent and fearsome out of the brute pack, the red amour covered all parts of its body, the short headdress signaled its rank as a minor chieftain, it was armed with a Gravity Hammer and a Spiker. It was flanked by two brute Honor Guards, there red amour covered by the yellow Forerunner glyphs made them very imposing threats, the red helmet with the yellow horns really gave them a demonic appearance, and both of them carried a Plasma Turret.**

**The brutes quickly made a path for the Chieftain. It strode forward to the elite.**

"**Greetings Commander, I am Minor Chieftain Ragnar."**

"**And I am Spec Ops Commander Fudo."**

"**I take it you are in charge here?" **

"**Yes." the Commander responded, trying to maintaining a polite tone of voice.**

"**Before we head out to…where ever we're going I ask of you to grant my soldiers some rest."**

**Fudo thought it strange for a brute to be presenting itself, and even stranger for it asking for rest. He figured it would want the mission over with.**

"**Granted." Fudo said.**

**Ragnar barked to his troops, they began to spread out, seeking their own place to rest.**

"**Look someone has brought us a feast!" said one of the brutes aloud.**

**Zuka was running in an instant toward Jack's cell. Jack was backing away from the entrance fear clearly displayed across his face. Two Infantry brutes stood in front of his cell. One of them reached toward the holographic lock on the cell. With his left hand Zuka grabbed the brute's hand and twisted it behind the brutes back. He then forced it to the floor and placed his foot on top of the brute's head, in the same movement he ignited his blade in his right hand and placed the blade at the base of the second brute's neck. It was reaching to grab the Spiker strapped to its thigh but stopped when he realized where the blade was.**

**All of the brutes had their weapons trained on Zuka, only the captain had restrained from drawing his weapon. The elites in turn leveled their weapons at the brutes, the brutes out numbered the elites 5 to 3. It was no secret that the brutes and elites loathed one another. The atmosphere in the room grew tense, everyone seemed to be holding their breath.**

"**Zuka let them go." said Fudo taking control of the situation.**

**Zuka grudgingly let go of the brutes up stranglehold he had on the brutes. They rose, the one Zuka had smashed looked at him with hateful eyes, and Zuka returned the glare with one of his own. Both leaders signaled their troops to lower their weapons. The angry brute looked as if it was going to charge him, but a firm hand placed on its shoulder forced it to relax when it had realized that the hand was attached to the Chieftain. The Chieftain approached Zuka and stared at him.**

"**An elite led by Commander Fudo named Zuka." Then you wouldn't happen to be the Zuka the Bloody Sword of the Prophets'?"**

**The brutes looked at their Chieftain as if it was some kind of joke. Zuka the Bloody Sword of the Prophets was one of the few elites that had mastered the feared Double Fang style. Some believed this to be a myth since all of the elites that had mastered this were all councilors, no Spec Ops soldier could have mastered this.**

"**Yes, I am that Zuka."**

**The color drained from most of the brutes faces, the brute that had been at Zuka's blade slightly trembled with fear, the other continued to glare at Zuka.**

"**I look forward to fighting with you." said Ragnar, he smiled.**

**To Zuka the smile looked more like a snarl.**

"**As do I." Zuka replied.**

**Ragnar gave a huff of agreement, and turned to face his troops that had tried to get into Jack's cell.**

"**Find your meal elsewhere." Ragnar growled.**

**The brutes moved off, the brute shot Zuka one last glare before moving on. Tension that had previously been in the room left like the air escaping a balloon.**

"**Youngling are you okay?"**

"**Just peachy… But I just have one question."**

"**Oh? What would that question be?"**

"**What's for dinner?" Jack said as a loud grumbling initiated from his gut.**

**Zuka laughed, finding the situation funny. "Be patient and I'll get you something."**

**Jack nodded as his stomach continued to growl.**

* * *

**267 was a killing machine. Anything that got in his way was immediately blown to bits. The hammering thud of the assault rifle pounded in his ears. Strange creatures that he had fought before from Delta Labs rushed at him with no heed to the many that fell. He was getting low on ammo.**

"_**Soon I'll have to fight these things in hand to hand combat. I'm not looking forward to that. It'll get my armor all dirty and I won't be able to use the armor's camouflage. Not to mention it would suck for the clean up crew to pick up spinal cords off the floor"**_

**There was only one left out of the many monsters. This one was vaguely humanoid, white orbs dotted around its head. The beast realized that it was the only one left and did something peculiar. It pitched its arm back as if it was to throw something.**

**267 instincts screamed at him to run, and he complied. The beast pitched forward a ball of plasma. It missed him by a great deal, it scorched the wall behind him.**

"**Well that's new." he said to the beast.**

**It roared at him and brought its arm back again to throw another. He didn't give it that chance. With his shotgun now in hand he rushed forward and slammed the butt of his gun into the things gut. While it was trying to recover from the blow, 267 took the opportunity to shove the muzzle of his gun into the things mouth, and pulled the trigger. Brain matter dripped from the ceiling as he reloaded his shotgun.**

**A sound of bending metal brought his attention to the floor below him. Many zombies were down there trying to bring down the platform that he stood upon.**

"**Shit, shit, shit!" he said as he ran toward a door.**

**The metal bridge like platform began to break up behind him as he ran. He made a leap of desperation and made it through the door. He rolled and brought his assault rifle to bear. **

**The sound of feasting brought his attention to a grunt feast on a human corpse.**

"_**A grunt?"**_

**The grunt was oddly shaped it left hand was three times the normal size, it looked kind of like a tentacle. Its skin was paler than normal.**

**It turned to face him, blood and gore dripped from its mouth. It eyes were just as pale as the zombies that he had killed. Being the idiot that 267 thought all grunts were it finished the piece of meat that it was on before making a move toward him.**

**He already had his rifle leveled on its head. One bullet exited the chamber of the assault rifle and blew the right half of its head off.**

"_**If that thing is here than that must mean that the planet is under attack. Crap, not only do I have to deal with these things but I also I have to kill the Covenant? Looks like I'm going to be busy."**_

**Groaning sounds brought his attention to other zombies that rushed at him, only to meet death. He was now more hesitant with each shot, making sure that each one counted. Heads blew up, littering the floor with gore. The rifle clacked empty.**

**He rushed at the zombies with his empty assault rifle and proceeded to bash their skulls in. All of the zombies lay upon the floor dead. His assault rifle was bent at angles that deemed the weapon inoperable. Scavenging through the bodies he was able to attain a plasma grenade from the grunt body, and a pistol with ammo from another fallen zombie.**

"**You will join us in death." spoke a voice from behind him.**

**He twirled, to face this new threat but he saw nothing but darkness. Suddenly he was lifted off his feet as an invisible force picked him up and threw him against a wall. Getting up from the fall he had his pistol in hand, again he saw nothing. A distortion of the light made him fire into its general position, he hoped to god that it would hit true.**

**It did, sparks of electricity flared out as an elite's invisibility sputtered and died. The thing let out a growl and leapt toward him. He let loose round after round at the elite. With strength that far surpassed 267's own it slapped the weapon out of his hands. 267 was off balance by this attack, the creature didn't waste any time to grab him by the shoulders and pin him against a pillar.**

"**I'll make it painless all you have to do is give up this pointless struggle." a bloated tongue snaked its way across the Spartans visor. **

**With its tongue it ripped off the helmet. The Spartan looked like he was toward the end of his adolescent years. His hair was short and a dull brown, the eyes were a light blue. A fire dwelled just behind those eyes. His skin was a dull tan, the facial features were tough and rugged.**

"**Spartans never give up!" he roared at the creature.**

**The thing may have had his upper body pinned but it had never bothered to pin his arms. While it was busy taking off his helmet the Spartan had extracted a 14inch long knife from its sheath. He forced the blade up through the head. It sliced through flesh, bone and brain matter.**

**The Spartans eyes locked onto the dead eyes of the zombie like Covenant soldier. Its body slumped to the floor. He extracted his blade from its head and began to reseal his helmet that he had grabbed off the floor. It hissed as his suit pressurized.**

**Going through the fallen zombie's corpse he was able to obtain two more Plasma grenades, a Plasma Pistol, and a Needler.**

"**It isn't much but it will have to do, for now." he said to himself. **

**He continued on through, not meeting any more resistance.**

* * *

**The atmosphere in the Covenant base was restless. It wasn't from the near battle that had been prevented but the anticipation to retrieve the Forerunner artifact. Also to face this new threat.**

**Zuka had made sure that Jack was fed, the boy was now very rambunctious after he had been fed. He was asking various personal how things worked, where they were from, and why they where fighting. Grunts talked to him most of the time telling about their families. Jack was lucky to even get a few words out of the brutes and a few elites. Then he started asking Zuka so many questions that had nearly driven him insane. Only one caught him off guard.**

"**Do you have a family?"**

"**I have a sister, my grandfather, and two guardians."**

"**No parents?"**

"**My fathers dead and my mother is dead to me." Zuka said with hatred in his voice when he mentioned his mother.**

"**Why do you hate her?"**

"**I'd rather not talk about it."**

"**Juju I want you to talk with this human." Zuka said to a grunt in black armor that was passing by.**

"**Why?" asked Juju.**

"**I want to speak with the other human."**

"**Fine." Juju said, and then he waddled over and started talking to Jack.**

**Zuka made his way through the various personal and equipment. All the while getting looks at from the brutes and his elite brethren, most of the grunts gave him a wide berth. Ishii was busy typing on the computer going through various files.**

"**How does your kind withstand a youngling's questioning?"**

"**With a lot of patience." By the way what did you give him?"**

"**A high caffeinated drink, along with a nutrient supplement."**

"**There's your problem. You gave the kid caffeine, now he's on a sugar rush."**

"**Sugar rush?"**

"**Basically he has more energy than normal."**

"**Ah, how goes your work?"**

"**I've established a connection with a few cameras, and opened the doors necessary for you to reach Delta Labs."**

"**Good." said Fudo from behind Zuka.**

"**So we'll be able to head out soon then?" said Ragnar, who stood next to Fudo.**

"**Yes." said Fudo.**

"**Good I've already chosen my group. Have you chosen yours?"**

"**Yes." replied Fudo.**

**Ragnar barked out a command and 10 brutes came toward him. Fudo had also called out and three elites stood before him.**

"**We'll purge into the heart of the human base and retrieve the Forerunner artifact that rightfully belongs to us. If any enemy is foolish to get in our way we'll burn them with the Covenant's holy light! Then we'll join our brothers, after we have returned victorious, to see the start of the Great Journey!" Fudo said as he gave his speech to the warriors that had gathered before him, they roared their approval.**

**The soldiers began their march toward the door. Zuka grabbed his particle beam rifle of his back and carried it in his hands.**

"**Why doesn't he take a closer ranged weapon?" asked Ragnar.**

"**He's deadly at any range with that rifle. Long, close doesn't matter. If any get in his sights they're dead."**

**Ragnar just shrugged but continued on anyways. The group marched out the doors and headed out. Not knowing the horrors they were about to face.**

**666**

"**The mortals are responding to the demon threat." spoke the horned one.**

"**Our allies have located where the weapon is hidden. If any of the mortals make it close enough they will guide them to its location." spoke the wisest.**

"**If not we will send our riders to retrieve it." spoke the strongest.**

"**I hope the mortals win and bring an end to this nightmare."**


	6. Chapter 6

Roars of brutes and elites were echoed through the hallways, as the soldiers did battle with monstrosities. Two of the brutes were already lying on the floor dead. Bodies blew up as grenades were tossed into huge groups of enemies.

Zuka's rifle hissed as another shot exited the barrel. Another of the zombie's heads disappeared. Zuka moved from side to side, and backpedaling if necessary to avoid being surrounded. One of zombies moved in while his rifle cooled down, it received a neck snapping blow from the butt of his rifle.

Ragnar's hammer was literally pulverizing the oncoming mob of creatures. Fudo's shots from his Carbine rifle were accurate and precise. The other soldiers mowed through the oncoming ranks.

The progress was steady, but it was tiring on the soldiers. As if to make matters worse other creatures rushed into the foray. Zombie soldiers came in and added their weapons into the melee. Humanoid beasts and a few massive dog-like beasts that Zuka had faced before came stomping toward them. They inflicted casualties on the Covenant soldiers, but they too fell under their onslaught.

Finally the last zombie fell, leaving the surviving soldiers a bit of rest.

"Now that was a battle!" said Ragnar excitedly as he raised the massive hammer.

"Indeed." said Zuka as he checked on the fallen.

Most of the bodies looked horribly mauled. A few had limbs missing, others were just bits and pieces. A groan brought his attention to one of the fallen brutes. It was the one that had wanted to eat Jack.

"We have a survivor." he called to the group.

Ragnar came forward and kneeled beside Zuka.

"Konstantin will you be able to carry on?"

"Yes, pack leader," Konstantin said as he pushed himself up and rubbed his neck "One of them bit me on the neck. I'm fine."

"Let me see." said Zuka.

Konstantin removed his hand to show a nasty puncture wound. The wound was circular, the edges of the wound were pussy, and blood dripped down his neck.

"It's nothing more than a flesh wound, though it does look infected." said Zuka.

"I told you I'm fine. I can wait until we get back to the fleet."

Zuka nodded and continued to check the other of the fallen. The rest were all dead.

"Enough rest. We move out now." said Fudo as he reloaded.

The troops reloaded their rifles and continued onwards. It was unsettlingly quiet as they made their way the dark human corridors. Enemies they met were few and weak. Words were written in blood on the walls, bodies were torn to pieces, the hallways, and rooms were a total mess.

"By the Gods above! What could do this butchery?" said one elite aloud.

"_The devil." _thought Zuka.

The next room they entered was strange. It wasn't because of the immense circular size of the room, but the bodies of male and female humans stuck to the ceiling. One of the elites bent over and hurled what ever he had eaten. The aroma of dead flesh and other things filled the air.

"Keep moving unless you want to join them." said Fudo as he headed to the next door.

The party steadily made their way through the dank corridors, weapons at the ready. The next room was just as large as the previous room, the only difference was that there wasn't any blood. Also the room was surrounded by a balcony.

"_This would be an excellent,"_ aloud scream seem to come out of the darkness that surrounded them. _"place for an ambush."_

Zuka twirled and fired as he heard the pitter patter of running feet behind him. The humanoid beasts that they had encountered earlier seem to come out of every dark shadow. They ran eagerly at their prey. Some jumped from the balconies above down toward the group.

The brutes' Brute Shot was a blessing, the grenades exploded into large groups killing many and injuring others. Plasma grenades stuck to the beasts flesh and exploded. Some of the creatures began to throw little blobs of plasma energy, which caused havoc on the groups shielding systems.

The fallen screamed defiantly as they were overwhelmed by the marching horde. Plasma bolts, needles, and grenades fell many that made their way toward them.

"Enough of this." Commander will you join me?" said Zuka as he ignited his blade.

"Let us show them what true warriors can do!" said Fudo as he ignited his own blade.

The black and white clad elites jumped at the on coming horde and began to slice the monsters to pieces. Zuka's blade slid effortlessly through air and flesh alike. In one stroke he fell three that had charged him. Fudo was having similar results with his own killing spree. Soon the battle started to turn in the Covenants favor. Fewer and fewer made their charge. Bodies littered the floor and disintegrated.

Then something came in the demons favor. A door flew through the air as a new monstrosity entered the fray. It seemed to be a Hunter equivalent of the creatures that they were currently fighting. The only difference was that the face was a skull. It spurred on the other creatures with its entrance.

Brutes and elites fired their weapons at the beast but it only seemed to shrug off the blasts. It began to slaughter everything in its reach. One of the brutes went berserk and jumped at the new entity. The thing tossed a much bigger version of the plasma balls at the brute. Time seem to slow down as the ball of energy exploded on the brute cooking the armor and flesh.

Zuka's blade finished off one off the smaller beasties by slicing off its head. He saw the new monster massacring the other soldiers. He turned to Fudo he was staring at the creature as well. They nodded at each other understanding that the beast had to be removed. Zuka and Fudo let loose a battle cry and charged at the monster. It turned to face this new threat. Fudo went low and Zuka went high.

The thing was too stumped as to which one it should attack. Fudo's blade sliced through the things right thigh. It screamed as it fell, well until Zuka sliced the things head off.

Fudo and Zuka nodded at each other and turned to finish off the other threats. Metal bent and cried as another of the skull creatures jumped off the balcony and landed behind Zuka and Fudo. Zuka turned to face the creature but the creature was faster and backhanded him with enough force to send him flying through the air.

Zuka flew through a door that just coincidently happened to be open. The air was knocked out of Zuka lungs when he hit the wall in the room on the far side. He slumped to the floor, but quickly regained his composure and tried to head through the door to rejoin the fight only to see that it had closed.

Zuka hammered the door with all his might, but the thing wouldn't budge. He stopped trying to bang the door open and listened, he heard nothing. That only meant two things. One that the door was soundproof or two everyone was dead. The former was what he hoped for.

He turned around to view his new environment. The room was square, their were three other doors, only one was open. Someone or something wanted him to take this path, he would go along this path and meet the one that wanted to meet him. Zuka growled in annoyance and headed through the corridors.

* * *

Fudo quickly sliced the monsters body in half, before it had time to cause havoc with the remaining troops. It didn't even have time to scream. Soon the battle was over, Fudo, Ragnar, 2 elites, and 5 brutes were all that remained of the party.

"We have to turn back and get more troops." said Fudo as he gasped for air.

"Nonsense," said Ragnar "We can make it."

"There are not enough of us left, and who knows how many more of those things lay in wait. We need to go back and get the heavy weaponry."

Ragnar was about to argue his point further but grudgingly decided that it was best to turn back. The party hurriedly made they're retreat back to the base. None of them noticed how the wound Konstantin began to pulsate rapidly as the virus coursed through his system. Konstantin grinned as his orders were received.

* * *

Zuka replaced his sword with his sniper rifle. He liked the feel of the cold metal in his hands. The creeping feeling in the back of his neck grew as he had passed through many corridors and had met no resistance.

The next door he came across read Energy Station: Caution Explosive Material Present. Rifle at the ready he headed through. What he saw was not what exactly what he had expected. Nearly every inch of the room was covered in a strange muscle like matter. The room had two generators had the left and right side, stairs lead up to each generator. A bridge connected the two generators. He gazed around looking for an enemy, he spotted one a top of the bridge.

The thing was about as tall as he was, and was really ugly. It had pale grey skin, like the other beasts that he had fought, it was drawn tight across its body. This seemed the only creature that he had encountered that actually seemed to posses two visible eyes.

The thing was waiting for him. It roared at him, the roar sound like an animal full of primal rage. Zuka fired his rifle at the beast, it moved with speed that surpassed its smaller look a likes, the shot missed. Again he fired and again he missed.

The creature paused and looked as if it was smiling at him, laughing at his attempts to kill it. Zuka growled back and fired again. It leapt but his shot caught it in the left leg. Zuka's smile was just as fierce as the one he was given, the monstrosity was no longer amused and faced him with a look of pure hatred.

Light gathered around it, Zuka was prepared to move in case it threw another of the plasma balls. The next that happened frightened the hardened combat elite. Other of smaller cousins of beast appeared around the original. Zuka quickly fired at the new creatures that had arrived, heads blew up but they kept on charging.

The rifle overheated as it was continually fired. Two of the new creatures were all that remained. One charged straight at him Zuka took a fighting stance. Then something unexpected happened, the beast blew up when it was just a few feet away from him. He flew as the blast sent him backward, he landed against the wall dazed.

The other creature took the opportunity to jump at him. Zuka rolled out of the beast fall, he left a plasma grenade where he originally was.

FABOOM

The beast disappeared in a blue mist. Zuka turned to face the original. It sent beam a red beam like blast out of its hands at him, he ducked and rolled.

"_That was the same color as the explosion! That little shit shot through the other one to get to me. He's so fucking dead."_

Zuka came out of his roll, only to face more of the creatures that had been summoned. He mowed through them, but onward they pressed. More and more were being call forth to battle him. The ones that close exploded as the beast that summoned them blew them up, trying to kill Zuka.

"_If this keeps up I'll be overwhelmed. Unless the cannon fodder keeps exploding in front of me. Hmm, explosion, that gives me an idea."_

Zuka quickly headed up the stairs on the left side. Sensing trouble the beast summoned a new creature at the top of the stairs. Red lightning occurred at the top of the stairs. The new creature as Zuka saw it looked like a human skeleton. It had green glowing orbs for eyes, and piece of red body armor covered the chest. Two turrets were connected to the armor, and were mounted on the shoulders.

One of the turrets swiveled in his direction. He had a second to duck his head as rocket issued forth from the cannon. The rocket zoomed over head and hit the creature behind him, killing those in the surrounding blast radius. Zuka fired the particle beam rifle, and was rewarded with seeing the purple plasma bolt take off its head.

He quickly turned around and blasted the heads off the creatures that had ran up single file up the stairs to rip him apart. As he neared the top the bridge he saw that it had another part leading off toward another open door. Zuka now turned toward the monitor and tapped a few controls. A red information bar came up showing that he didn't have authorization to obtain access. Thinking on his feet Zuka did something that he would never do on any other circumstance.

He ran, and pressed some buttons on his rifle. A timer appeared on his HUD as he activated the self destruct on his rifle.

0:15

He kept running to the doorway clutching to the rifle. The beasts quickly gaining on his heels.

0:10

He was a little more than half of the way there.

0:05

He tossed his rifle at the left generator. It soared through the air like a spear.

0:03

He ran through the door and kept running.

0:01

The rifle struck the generator. Spider webs of broken glass appeared as the glass cracked under the force.

0:00

The rifle finished its self destruct and exploded in fiery purple plasma. Alarms rang as the generator overloaded. It exploded sending fire as hot as a sun incinerating all in its fiery path. Fire of explosion quickly gained on the fleeing elite.

Zuka ran as fast as he could. He could feel the heat of the gaining firestorm. The door up ahead was blocked, the sign above it read Advance Weapons Division.

Zuka prayed to any holy deity that was listening to open the door before him. One of them must have answered his prayer, the door slid open. He jumped through, the door slammed shut sealing off the explosion.

Zuka laid on the floor panting. He thanked whatever god that had answered his prayer. The cock of a gun at his head made him pray to the same god to help him out of the next mess he was in. Opening his eyes he stared at what the Covenant feared most, what he assumed based upon the description he was given. A demon stared at him through its golden face plate, a shotgun pointed at his head.

* * *

The room 267 was brightly lit. Racks of guns and a view of vehicles were orderly placed in the room. It was a weapon wielders paradise. Powerful weapons lined the racks, a few were even plasma based.

267 was busy viewing through different weapons looking for the ones that would best suit his needs.

KABOOM

The explosion tipped the Spartan off balance.

"Aveon, what was that?" he yelled.

"It was the Calvary I was telling you about taking out one of the generator rooms, along with a lot of hostiles."

"Damn, I really can't wait to meet them."

All of a sudden the door to the armory whisked open an elite came jumping through the door. 267 grabbed his shotgun and pointed it at the resting elites head. The elite opened its eyes when it heard him cock the shotgun.

"Uh, hi." said the elite as it spread it arms way from its body looking as weak as possible for an 8 foot tall soldier clad in jet black armor.

"The only reason I haven't blown your head off is because I want you tell me what the hell is going on."

"The base is under attack by demons."

"I know that." 267 said impatiently "What is going topside? How many of you are there?"

The elite shifted uneasily in its position, unsure of what to do. 267 pushed the muzzle of the rifle closer to the elites face. It didn't even flinch as the barrel was lowered toward his head, however it came to the decision that it still wanted to live.

"We are currently at war on the surface and in space. The battle is going in our favor. There is one platoon worth of Spec Ops soldiers stationed in the reception area."

267 was prepared to blast the head off the elite but someone made him stop, actually it was something.

"267 I wouldn't kill him unless you didn't want to kill the one who killed a bunch of the creatures." said a Aveon as she appeared human sized behind the Spartan.

"Who the hell are you." asked the elite.

"You shut up." he said to the elite before turning his head to face Aveon "You mean to say that he was the Calvary that you were talking about?"

"Yes, now if you would please let him up? Aveon asked.

The Spartan was really pissed off at the elite now, but the military side in him urged him to follow the order that he was given. Slowly he backed off the elite and slowly the elite got up.

"Now if you would please follow me." Aveon 'gestured' for the elite to follow her.

Aveon stopped and a panel slid out of the wall. It lines crisscrossed each other over a green screen.

"Will please place your hand on this?"

The elite complied and placed his hand on top of the panel. A light occurred underneath his palm as it was being scanned. There was also a brief noise of flesh being pierced as a needle shot through the elite's hand taking a piece of his DNA. Then a light flashed in front of the elites face. It was clearly surprised by the needle and the flash of light.

"What is your name?" asked Aveon

"Zuka Vadumee." the elite said.

"Zuka Vadumee that is quite an interesting name."

"Uh, thanks." the elite said uncertainly.

"Let's see now ah, here is your file."

"My file?"

"His file?" asked the Spartan.

"Yes, you are Zuka Vadumee, a Private of the UNSC military. Welcome to the Marines."

"What?" asked the elite and Spartan in unison not believing what they were hearing.

"These creatures are a threat to human and Covenant alike. We have no idea what we are facing, or for that matter how much of an opposition that we face. The only way is if you two put aside your differences kill them all, or stop them from where they're coming from."

"You mean I'll be giving the elite orders?" still not believing what he was hearing.

"You mean to say I'll be taking orders from a human?" the elite thundered.

"No, I'll be giving both of you orders. Because if you have a problem, I have a problem and my friends won't like that." as she spoke two AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun turrets descended from the ceiling and were pointed at the elite and Spartan.

The elite turned and faced the human and said "I guess we don't have a choice in the matter." then the elite extended its freaky hand toward 267.

"I guess we don't." 267 grasped the elite in a handshake.

The handshake soon turned into see who could cause the other the most amount of pain to the other.

"Now that you two have made nice I can get down to business and give the real toys."

The elite and Spartan soon ended their struggle as they turned to see a wall slide back showing some very, very advanced weapons. Even Zuka was impressed.

"Hello ladies." said the Spartan.

Zuka headed toward a very large sniper rifle. The rifle had a large barrel, which probably meant that it fired a big shell, the scope on the rifle glowed a dull blue. It had a large grip on the bottom. M99 Special Application Scoped Rifle it read. He hefted the weapon and was surprised by the weight of the weapon.

"I see you like the big guns." said 267 as he examined a rack of shotguns.

Zuka looked down the barrel of the rifle. The barrel automatically zoomed in on the closets living target which happened to be the Spartan.

"I really like this weapon." Zuka said as lowered the sniper rifle.

"I see you decided that you went with the M99 Special Application Scoped Rifle, otherwise known as the Stanchion. It is the most powerful sniper rifle ever developed by human forces. Using linear magnets, the M99 can launch it undersized rounds at up 15,000M, or 49,212 ft if you prefer, second. It will rip through anything not as strong as a foot (thirty centimeters) of titanium. Its recoil and size means a trained sniper must handle it. " said Aveon.

The Spartan whistled at the description of the M99.

267 was staring at what looked like a cannon of some sort. Spartan Laser it read. The Spartan smiled at the name of the weapon.

"What exactly does this weapon do?" he asked as he hefted the weapon on his shoulder."

"The Weapon/ Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Rifle, or Spartan Laser as it is more commonly known, is the only UNSC laser-powered weapon, making it the most powerful tool of destruction used by ground troops. While it shares several notable disadvantages with other heavy weapons, such as a delayed charge cycle between shots, a limited power cell that allows only five discharges per fully charged battery and its brute strength more than makes up for any ungainliness- even a Wraith cannot withstand a fully charged shot."

"I'll take it." he said.

Zuka was now attracted to another of the human weapons. It looked was a human Assault Rifle.

"The MA5, it is meant for close to medium ranged combat. It can hold 60 9.5mm Full Metal Jackets in each magazine."

"Hmm, so the gun allows me to be absolutely brutal in close quarters combat. I really like this weapon."

"Never liked the AR. It lacks both range and firepower." 267 said as he examined a shotgun.

"Well I'm satisfied with the weapons that I have. Do you happen to have any grenades?" Zuka asked.

"Yes if you will walk over here." Aveon gestured to another segment of the wall.

Zuka headed over to the wall and began to look at the various grenades.

"Are their any powerful shotguns?" 267 asked.

"Yes." Aveon said as she pointed at a shotgun on the far wall.

267 walked over to it. The shotgun looked like the old pump action used back in the 20th century.

"The M90 Close Assault Weapon System or M90 CAWS is a devastating close quarters weapon. It uses 12 8 gauge shells."

267 placed the M90 CAWS on his back next to the Spartan Laser and headed over to Zuka to grab some grenades.

"There are three different types of grenades here. Their is the Incendiary Grenade, which as you guess lets loose a flame upon contact with any surface." Aveon gestured to a cylindrical device. "Next there is the Frag Grenade of M9-HE-DP uses fragment of the grenade to inflict damage. Finally there is the Flash-bang Grenades, which let loose a bright light along with a loud bang, which is used to temporarily disable opponents.

Zuka and 267 divided 2 grenades of each type between each other. They also grabbed extra ammo for each weapon. Zuka possessed his sword, the Assault Rifle, and the Stanchion. 267 had possessed a Spartan Laser and the M90 CAWS Shotgun. Both of them had plenty of grenades.

"Here are your orders, you are to head into Delta Labs and shutdown the portal. And kill Betruger and anything else that gets in your way. If shutting down the portal is not possible then I want you to crossover and kill whatever is leading these things. Am I understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

Zuka just nodded his agreement.

"Try not to die or get in my way human." said Zuka as he turned and head toward the door.

"Just try and keep up." 267 said back to the elite.

Both soldiers headed out the door to confront the horrors that awaited them.

666

"The mortals are proving themselves worthy of the End War." spoke the horned one with a ravenous hunger.

"They are at war. They do not see the greater threat here or the one that lurks outside your power." spoke the Old One.

"DO NOT MENTION THE PARASITES NAME!" they all screamed "WHEN THE TIME COMES EVEN IT WILL SUBMIT TO THE LAW!"

"They are not yet ready for End War. We are not ready for the End War. Summon your allies and tell them it is time to bring an end to this experiment." The Old One spoke as he let the almost mystical lightning crackle around his aged form.

The ones who followed the Law were momentarily cowed by the Old One. He was more powerful than they, for the moment.

"Watcher, go and send the message." said the strongest of the three.

"Yes my master." said a voice from the shadows that was hidden by the flickering flames.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks to all of you that have reviewed my story or have added it to your favorites. I will continue with this story and hopefully finish it. I have a sequel in mind of EPIC proportions. Here is the 7th chapter. I do not own Halo or Doom.

666

Jack waited patiently for Zuka to return. He was a very interesting elite. The elite reminded him of the comical characters in the cartoons that he watched. Zuka was one of the characters with a good heart but a very quick temper, they usually hit their allies when they did something to stupid or embarrassing. The grunt, Juju, however was interesting but didn't poses the samurai flare that Zuka had. Juju was comical, he reminded him of a young child.

"I spy with my little eye something white." said Jack.

"Is it him?" asked Juju as he pointed at the white clad elite that had just returned.

They were in an engaging game of I spy. Jack was winning by 1 point and Juju, and the other grunts that had gathered, refused to lose to him.

"Yes."

"Yay. Now its me turn." squeaked Juju.

"No it ain't. Its mine turn!" barked a small grunt.

"Where's Zuka?" asked Jack to the white clad elite that passed by.

"We were separated. Since he has not returned he must still be some where in the facility." said the elite.

"Bah, he's dead. Either the demons got to him or the explosion did!" said one of the brutes that thought that Jack was a gift.

"You don't know him like I do. Besides the only reason we were able to get so far with a small group is because Zuka was blowing their heads off!" the elite spat back.

"Well anyways he's gone. So that means meat is back on the menu." the brute stared hungrily at Jack.

"He'll return and kick your ass if you touch me." said Jack unwaveringly.

The brute stepped up to the cage ready to tear the boy apart. Then the white clad elite intercepted him and said "He is not to be eaten."

The brute stared at him a little longer in disbelief that the Commander would stop him from killing a human. Then its brain started clicking and it turned away deciding that it didn't want to gets his ass handed to him by another elite.

The white clad elite turned to Jack and said "I didn't save your life because I care for you, but because it was the duty of my loyal friend and soldier. Besides if I let anything happen to you Zuka probably would kick my ass.

Jack laughed some what at this than said "What's your name?"

The elite stared at him quizzically thinking why a human would want to know his name. Then he answered "My name is Commander Fudo Nitratemee."

"Fudo Nitratemee why is."

"Commander Fudo Nitratemee." Fudo corrected him.

Jack snorted not in the least amused, Fudo chuckled a bit.

"Commander Fudo Nitatemee why is Zuka angry at his mother?"

"I assume he didn't tell you?"

Jack shook his head side to side.

"Well to put it bluntly he believes that his mother killed his father, and that she has attempted to kill him off. Also she stole his inheritance and gave it to his sister."

"Can you tell me more about his past? So that way I can understand more about it."

The grunts now noticing the conversation sat down to listen to the Commander's tale on Zuka.

"He was born on our home world Sanghelios, as was I. His father was a high ranking Councilor and a brave warrior. His mother was a priestess, many respected her for her wisdom and came to her for counsel. His birthing was an accident. So when he was born it came to a great surprise to the both of them. His mother wanted nothing to do with him, luckily his father was kind and raised him. The reason his mother wanted nothing to do with him was because she was a priestess and wanted a daughter to continue in her line. She comes from a matriarchal party and she thought Zuka was garbage. Anyways when he was about 5 years old his father died under mysterious circumstances. Everything in his father's will was supposed to go to Zuka when he came of age. However his mother intervened, and made sure that all of it would go to her daughter, which she had two years after Zuka. In our society the blades of the father is supposed to go to the eldest son. So naturally Zuka was angry at the fact that his father's blades was being taken away from him. Once his mother was certain everything would be given to her daughter she disowned Zuka and threw him out when he was only five. If his grandfather hadn't been there to guide and take care of him he would most have likely died. As he grew up his grandfather taught him in the ways of the warrior. His Guardians were responsible for his strength and endurance training, which by the way I'm surprised he survived. Then when he came of age he joined the Covenant Special Operation division. He hopes to follow in his fathers footsteps, and avenge his death." Fudo said before pausing and saying "That is his whole story."

"Thanks for telling me. I wont tell Zuka that you told me." said Jack "And neither will they" he continued gesturing to the grunts.

Some where crying at Zuka's miserable tale, others were surprised when Jack referenced them. Fudo noticed that some brutes, including Ragnar, and a most of the elites had also closed in to listen to his tale.

"Don't you have something better to do then to listen to me talk!? Get back to work!" Fudo yelled at them.

There was a flurry of activity as soldiers scrambled out of the Commander's furious glare, to attend posts that they had abandoned or to check their weaponry and equipment.

* * *

Blood spattered the walls as Zuka and 267 began to rip through the demons. The loud boom of M90 CAWS was heard over and over again. The rounds passed through flesh with relative ease. Zombies and other creatures entered the fray only to be shot down. Progress through each room required utter eradication of everything living and nonliving creature. There were ambushes along the way, but their cries for blood gave them away long before they charged.

Zuka used his assault rifle to devastating effect. He shot in an arc like pattern going for maximum kills. One of the creatures came to close and received a good dosage of bullets. The high pressure circulation of the creature's blood sent blood in a multitude of directions.

"Damn. I got blood in my eye." said Zuka as he blinked furiously to remove the beast's blood.

267 tossed one of the Frag Grenades into a new horde of the creatures that had entered. The grenade lodged itself into the eye socket into the lead beast. It exploded and engulfed the creature and those around it in deadly flying shrapnel.

Zuka and 267 continued on working on the advancing hordes of creatures. Soon all of the creatures lay upon the floor dead.

"Not bad, Demon."

"You're pretty good yourself, well as far as elites go."

The army of two continued their way to Delta Labs. Ignoring the amount of gore that stained the walls. As they continued on the encountered less and less enemies.

"Normally when there are fewer creatures about there is something bigger and much more terrifying up ahead."

"Don't tell me you're getting scared." said 267 as he reloaded shells into his shotgun.

"Me afraid? Hardly. I readily welcome the challenge to face a deadly foe."

"Well that's one thing we seem to have in common."

Both warriors gave a deadly smile to each other, wanting to rip the other to shreds.

"Boys, I want you to play nice." crackled Aveon through the Spartan's head set.

"We are… for the most part." responded 267 as he entered the next room closely followed by Zuka.

267 didn't notice as a figure lowered itself from the ceiling to appear right behind him, Zuka did however. Zuka grabbed the head of this new beast and pulled down, hard. A sickening sound was heard as the head and spinal cord was ripped out. The Spartan turned to face the creature to see Zuka holding the head and spinal cord in his hands. Blood spattered all over Zuka's shielding system.

"You have to be more careful." Zuka said cockily to the Spartan.

"I will take your advice and give it back to you." with that said he lifted his assault rifle and blasted the head off of the monster behind him.

Zuka twirled to face the new threat, but was disappointed to see that it was already dead.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"I wonder how many times I'm going to have to save your life Spartan."

"I was thinking the exact same thing."

"I'm glad to see that you boys are playing nice, but I would like you to hurry up before more of those things come through."

Both warriors said nothing, but increased their pace none the less. Soon they came upon the door labeled TELEPORTATION TEST FACILITY B.

267 placed his back up against the wall on the right side of the door, Zuka had done the same on the opposite side. Zuka extracted the two of the Flash Bangs. They nodded toward each other knowing what was about to happen.

"On the count of three." said 267.

Zuka preformed the age old ritual. One heart beat for honor. The fourth finger of the Spartan went down. Second heart beat for family. Soon the Spartan's middle finger added itself to the developing fist. Third for faith. All the fingers were gone and the Spartan hit the open command on the panel. The door slid open and Zuka primed and tossed in the now active flash bangs. Slamming shut the door resealed itself. There was a muffled thump as the grenades went off. As soon as the explosion had ended both soldiers charged into the room ready to open fire.

What greeted them was not what they had expected. Every inch of the room was covered in blood and body parts. The bodies that were the most intact dotted the walls crucified upside down. Though what really intrigued both of them was the red portal that formed a little ways away from them. A demonic looking skull surrounded the portal.

"Hell's mouth." the Spartan said to himself.

"I'm getting some static here on visual. What are you seeing?" said Aveon.

"The portal, along with a few other things I don't even want to describe." said Zuka.

267 completely agreed with the elite. He had seen some weird shit, but this was completely off the scale. Never had he seen so much blood and gore. Forcing his eyes shut he allowed himself to relax and focus on what was necessary, besides he didn't want a scene like this to reoccur in his dreams.

Zuka hefted his assault rifle and began to head to the portal, 267 followed behind him. Both warriors kept one eye on the portal as they wove their way through various terminals and debris. Just because they hadn't seen any as they entered didn't mean that there weren't any lying in wait. The creatures had a knack from coming from any and every possible direction.

"I'm impressed that you've gotten this far, but you have become a problem and there for need to be eliminated." said a voice that the small group immediately recognized.

"Come out so we can kill you." said Zuka with god like authority.

"Aveon you were able to get him to help you? And you sent him to stop me? I'm flattered." said Betruger from everywhere.

"Come out now and I'll _try_ to kill you as _painlessly_ as I can. At this point." said 267.

"My alliance will protect me from the storm to come."

"You mean your submission." said Zuka

"Your life ends here."

"Huh, coward." said 117.

Tremors caused both of them to lose their balance.

"Is it an earthquake?" 267 asked even though he already guessed the answer.

"No something much worse." Zuka responded.

Three of the skull creatures came stomping out of the portal. There were two like the one Zuka had faced earlier, but the largest one was covered in armor and bore a pentagram on its chest. Obviously a leader.

Zuka replaced his assault rifle with the sniper rifle. The larger one grunted and the two that stood behind him rushed to meet the warriors. Obviously it thought fighting these two was beneath it.

"Time to see what this thing can do." Zuka said as he aimed the Stanchion.

Zuka didn't move as one of the things rushed at him. He waited patiently for his target to get in closer. Time seemed to slow down for Zuka as the impending machine of death rushed at him. Then he fired, and was lifted off the floor as the force of the recoil impacted on his chest. The bullet moved at super sonic speed, creating a thin trail of blue fire as it moved through the air, it impacted on the creatures face.

The creature's corpse did a back flip as the kinetic force of the bullet forced the creature off its feet.

267 was forced to dodge energy balls as the creature rushed him, eager to kill. 267's shotgun echoed through the room as he fired. The first round pierced its side causing it to turn around. He fired again aiming at the things head. There was another loud bang plus a thump as the creature fell with its head and left half of the torso missing.

The black armored skull creature roared unfurled its claws and proceeded to enter the fray. It leaped at the still dazed Zuka. Zuka was sent flying, the M99 flew from his hand and landed behind a terminal. 267 turned to face the creature and fired his shotgun. A red energy shield shimmered as the bullets impacted on it. Another roar of anger escaped it's maw as it came at him.

Zuka rose only to see the Spartan get sent flying over him. He jumped up and drew his plasma sword. The creature was going to finish off the Spartan but Zuka performed a double kick to the monster with enough force to send it stumbling away. It turned to face him and did something that surprised him. It raised its right hand and a sickening red beam of plasma stabilized. They began to move in a circle around each other, just a few feet out of killing each other. Then they charged. Intense heat radiated off of both blades, and seemed to increase as both blades struck against each other. From a distance the battle looked like some satanic waltz.

The creature had the advantage in the strength of its blows which it used to its advantage began to drive Zuka back. Zuka had superior speed and swordsmanship, but he was feeling his opponent looking for openings. There were many. It thrust the blade forward in a stabbing motion, he moved to one side and sliced its hand off. A roar of unearthly quality of pain escaped from its maw. Stumbling backwards gave Zuka another chance to hack at the creature, he sliced horizontally across its chest. Red vapors began to escape from the damaged shielding, the pentagram began to fade as the shielding died. He began to move in to end the creature's life, but it grabbed him by the throat with its remaining hand and slammed him against the wall. His blade dropped from his hand. Blackness began to cloud his vision as the creatures grip tightened on his throat cutting off his air way.

"_I refuse to die like this!"_ he thought as he smashed his weakening limbs against the creatures tree trunk sized arm.

As his vision faded he could see a red dot appear on the side of the things face.

"Hey bitch over here." 267 yelled as the Spartan Laser began to charge.

Both Zuka and the creature turned their head to the Spartan. The reticule on the Spartan Laser filled. A red beam of plasma lanced out across the air and destroyed everything in its path. Zuka watched in horrific fascination as the beam impacted on the creatures face, completely vaporizing it. The pressure on Zuka's neck lessened and his vision slowly came back. Shaking his head Zuka rose and recovered his energy sword.

"Looks like I owe you one." replied Zuka as he headed to where the Stanchion had fallen.

"No, if you hadn't have distracted the monster I might have been dead." 267 responded.

"I guess we saved each other." Zuka said humorously as he picked up the sniper rifle.

"What do you have left?"

"I have the sniper rifle, my blade, a few extra clips for the assault rifle, and a few grenades. What do you have?"

"I have the Spartan Laser and a few grenades as well. Along with my armor personal defense."

"What happened to your shotgun?"

"The bastard bent it in half before sending me half way out of this life." 267 said to the now decomposing monster.

"Well it appears that I will have to do this myself." came Betruger voice from the portal.

Both soldiers turned toward the portal weapons raised. Nothing happened except the portal started to spin faster and faster. Then both warriors felt. A slight tugging as the portal soon turned into a maelstrom trying to pull them in. Zuka grabbed onto one of the computer terminals, as did the Spartan. They held on for dear life as the portals intensity grew. The metal that the Zuka was holding onto bent and was ripped from its terminal. As 267 flew through the air 267 managed to catch him on his outstretched hand. 267's grip on his own terminal weakened as he tried to keep the elite from entering the portal. Then he too was pulled backwards by the force of the portal. The portals swallowed both of them. Then the portal lessened in force and the room returned back to normal. All that was left to prove the evidence that Spartan and Elite had been there was the decaying bodies of the monsters.

666

"A pair of mortals have entered the realm of Antilife." Spoke the horned one.

"Yes, Zuka and a Spartan." spoke the wisest. Clarifying it for the Old One.

"Zuka? How do you know of this mortal?" asked the Old One.

"We have thought of bolstering our ranks by adding him." spoke the strongest.

"What of the Spartan?"

"He is a Spartan III, nothing like the previous versions. Why would we want a soldier that even the mortals have cast aside to save themselves?" asked the wisest.

The Old One stared quietly at the three before him thinking of this new development, and what courses of actions should be done to the Spartan on his side.

666

I know I have made Zuka a real badass but I plan on explaining why Spartan 267 alias is War in the next chapter. Has anyone guessed who the four mystery characters are yet? I won't reveal it until I do the sequel. That is if I do one. By the way I'm thinking of adding the Aliens from the Alien movie series and I was wondering if you think it was a good or bad idea. I'll take votes from the reviews and go from their. If I do, do this It will make sense and pertain to the story."


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Doom or Halo. I will not add the Aliens to this story and will continue to make this a Doom and Halo crossover only. I do plan to continue a sequel but I cannot promise you readers anything.

666

It was theorized that in normal teleportation nothing can be seen or felt. But what they were feeling completely blew that theory out of the water. Both seem to tumble down the throat of some large beast. Pain that neither one of them had felt before ripped at their bodies. A burning sensation of being lit on fire was what it could only be compared to.

The trip was brief but it felt like a life time. They exited in a blood red sky. Looking down they could see a metal grill coming up to meet them. Both of them were concerned that they would be squashed against it. Then the most amazing and terrifying thing happened. Their bodies seem to slow down as they approached it, then stopped all together. It was as if it possessed an anti gravity field that could affect it and the environment around it. Their was a clack as their boots hit the grill.

CLANK

A metal bar slammed against one side of the grill. More clanks followed as more bars slammed against the sides creating a cell. Their descent to the ground quickly speed up. The G-forces that should have been pulling on their bodies were completely absent. It gave them some concern, but why make a cage to kill them when the fall alone could have done it.

They hit the ground and the cage faded away. They were on a floating platform of sorts. Both reached for their weapons expecting a hostile welcoming party. None came. Looking around they saw that the only way out was a path up to a green glowing pentagram.

They steadily made their way forward weapons at the ready. As they reached the base of the stairs the two skull like statues on the sides of the stairs open their mouths. Green light flowed out of their eyes and mouth. Both had trained _their_ weapons on the statues as if daring them to move. Relaxing at the fact that the statues didn't represent a threat, for the moment, continued up the stairs.

"What do you think this is for?" asked Zuka pointing at the glowing pentagram.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Both soldiers entered the glowing circle not knowing what to expect. The pentagram's glow even brighter and then the green light speared upward capturing everything in its area. Zuka had shielded his eyes with his hand, while 267's visor immediately polarized. Then the light came crashing down and both were gone as the light hit the ground. It's light dimmed as its duty was fulfilled.

Zuka was expecting more blistering pain to come, but he felt nothing as he was transported. He opened his eyes to see that they were in a different area. They were on another floating platform, surrounded by gray bricks. Scanning the area he realized that there was no exit.

"_Damn, were," _all of a sudden the bricks flew apart as if some giant sized child had ripped them out of their place._ "trapped."_

Screams of coming demon made both of them raised their weapons. A large number of the multi-eyed creatures came running at them from the newly formed holes. 267 whipped out his knife and unleashed hell onto the hell spawn. Zuka knowing that his Stanchion would be inefficient against this number of creatures activated his plasma sword. It hissed as it was activated. He charged forward at the creatures, unleashing a battle cry from his mouth. Joining the Spartan in the joy of close quarters combat.

The creatures were divided and soon fell under their onslaught. 267 released his knife that had been trapped in the eye socket of the creatures and proceeded to use a mix of martial arts and brute strength. The Elite cut down many opponents at a time. Both looked around for another path but found none.

"Now what do we do?" Zuka asked.

The stones that used to have been apart of walls came back together again to form a stone path before them, connecting to another large floating platform.

"I think we should take the path." said 267 sarcastically and warily at the same time.

"I swear that if a human doesn't annoy me then some unholy deity will take the role onto himself to piss me off." Zuka said more to himself than to 267.

267 chuckled softly to himself as he heard the elites comment. He carefully set one foot onto the stone, half expecting it to fall from under him. It didn't. Satisfied that he wouldn't fall to his death he continued onward, Zuka followed shortly after not completely trusting the stone bricks beneath him to hold. Both looked skyward looking for some aerial form of a demon to come and try to kill them, what they saw took their breath away. Looking skyward they saw a blood red sky with chucks of rock, stone, and metal of different sizes, some as big as a small moon, floating in a spinning manner a planet sized flame around the center, threatening to destroy everything. They reached the other hovering platform with out incident.

"Okay that was freaky." said 117 as he reached the platform.

"I agree." said Zuka slightly shaken at what he had seen.

Both of them shrugged it off and continued onward to face the horrors that awaited them. Screams off their enemies echoed off the walls. 267 cleaned his knife on his armor. Zuka continued moving forward, his sword humming as it swayed through the air.

* * *

Betruger stood looking into a floating mirror that showed the Spartan and the elite. His body had begun to change to cope with the gifts that his master had given him for his devotion. Stunted wings began to grow out of his back, and a smoldering fire surrounded both of his hands. He grimaced as another wave of the demons failed to kill them off. His grimace soon turned into a scowl as the five lower ranking hell knights that he had sent were either cut down or were brutally mauled.

"Why won't these bastards die?" he asked.

"Maybe you should send us." said a raspy voice behind him.

Betruger turned to face the demon that had spoken. It was one of the elite hell imps that stood behind him. The reason that these ones were different was because they were fiercer and more intelligent than the others. In short they were actual soldiers. Not the rage blind creatures that lusted only blood. They had similar body armor to that of the elite hell knights. Their mouths were only thing that showed, along with the many holes in their helmet for their eyes. Hell Guns were placed along their backs. Most of them were predominantly long range, but they had knife like blades attached to their fingers for brutal close range combat. The one that had spoken possessed a spear with a dual pronged plasma cutter.

"That was a rhetorical question." he said as he turned back to the mirror.

"We can kill them. Besides there getting closer to the artifact." it said the word artifact with distaste. "There's a chance that it will accept one of them as its master. If it doesn't they are bound to take it back with them to find one that it will respond to. You know how the Destroyer feels about failure."

Betruger shuddered remembering the demons that had wronged the ruler of this plane. They had become apart of the king's body. Forever condemned to be tortured physical and mentally by his presence.

"Fine, but take some of the dark knights with you."

"As you wish." it said as it bowed.

He moved off and his fellows followed him, he had the perfect dark nights in mind.

* * *

Zuka sliced his opponents with relative ease. These creatures had never faced a warrior of his caliber and it became more evident as bodies of the creatures littered the floor. Soon the last of his opponents fell back, sliced down the center. He turned and faced the Spartan. The Spartan had just finished stabbing a creature in the throat before disemboweling it. After disemboweling it he used the organs from the creature to strangle another. The creatures died a weird embrace.

"Its weird." the Spartan spoke staring at his handiwork.

"What is? The fact that you strangled someone with someone else's guts. I mean I have strangled someone with their own guts but never did something as demented as that."

"No, but thanks. The fact is that I don't feel exhausted. In fact I feel like I could fight for an entire year!"

Zuka noticed the condition of his own body and came to realize that he wasn't tired in the least bit, in fact he felt great.

"Maybe their something in our environment that is giving us this inexhaustible amount of energy?"

"That does make sense."

They continued through rooms and hallways with no enemy to face. The décor of the place reminded 267 of the Old Medieval castles. The blazing torches and the large amount of stone was weird to say the least.

"I really like what they've done with such a modest budget. This Medieval theme really brings out the horror of this place." said 117.

"Hmm?"

"The structural design is similar to that of earth's old castles."

"Aahh."

"All that's missing is the screaming of some pour soul being tortured along with the rattling chains."

Screams of a creature in pain sounded off somewhere in the distance.

"There it is."

They continued forward weapons at the ready. Exiting the tunnel they entered a hellish courtyard. Growths scaled up and down the walls, rubble of stone statues lay scattered across the ground. Castle like ramparts lined one side of the yard, and on the opposite was a cliff. Zuka got that ominous feeling of being watched, so did 267. Both looked at each other as if confirming each others suspicions about an impending danger.

Each heard something that sounded like "Hostiles."

"What was that?" asked 267.

"Just the wind."

"Really, when has the wind ever said "hostiles" to you?"

A creature in black armor poked it head over the ramparts before ducking back into cover.

"On many occasions, followed by many bodies." Zuka said as he braced himself against a pillar.

"Do you think they know why we were brought here?" Zuka asked 267.

"Well there not here to tells us about it over milk and cookies."

"I doubt that they'd greet us with open arms after how many of their brethren I've killed."

"You've killed? I probably have more kills than you."

"Do I smell a wager?"

"Let's play a game to see who's the better killer. The loser has to give something to the other."

"I accept this. I wager this plasma sword."

"I'll wager my knife."

"That toothpick?"

"You got a problem with that?"

"No, I just expected something of more value."

"It's helped me to survive a lot of close encounters, so its kind of special to me. Besides it was given to me by someone I consider to be my father."

Zuka's face panged with pain as he realized how important the weapon was to his human ally.

"I have no idea if he's dead or alive."

"Be thankful that your father figure gave you anything." Zuka said as he stared back up at the wall, many more bodies of enemies sprung up from the wall. "Let the games begin. May the better warrior win."

Zuka extracted his sniper rifle and blew off the head of one of the creatures. He had braced himself against the pillar so he wouldn't be sent flying. The spent shell exited, and he slammed a fresh shell in. Another loud bang was heard and another of the demons ranks had fallen. Ten seconds had passed between the first shot and the second.

"Two!" he shouted.

A blue bolt narrowly missed Zuka's large head as one of the creatures fired upon him. 267 and threw his knife at the creature with such deadly accuracy that it lodged in the creatures skull that had taken a potshot at Zuka. Its body slumped forward, its arms dangling over the wall.

"Two." 267 shouted.

"How the heck is that two points?"

"Killing the one that tried to kill your opponent counts as double points. Besides if you died I could never rub it in your face that I won?"

Zuka merely grumbled as he ducked back into cover to avoid being shot. Soon 267 was forced to find cover as the bolts landed near them. The barrage continued without ending.

"_Why would they fire without acquiring a target? Are they just trying to wear down our cover? _Zuka's mind raced as he thought of the different military reasons why they would fire without end. Then a thought suddenly came to his mind _"They would only fire so recklessly to pin an opposing group, while another party flanked the enemies position._

Zuka checked his motion sensor to confirm this idea. Sure enough there were five blips circling around.

"There's a small group coming to flank us! If you can distract those bastards long enough I'll take the opportunity to take out the flanking group! Here take my sniper" he shouted over to 267.

267 didn't say anything but he grabbed the rifle as it flew through the air and fired from his cover at the firing creatures. The plasma bolts momentarily stopped, Zuka took this brief time to run from his cover and to head toward the flanking party. He replaced his sniper rifle with his sword. His hooves clacked against the stone floor. Turning a corner he faced five of the startled black armored colored creatures. A loud battle cry exited from his mouth further startling the creatures. One of the creatures fell from a cut that went from the left abs and ended at the right shoulder, and second fell without a head. Another plasma bolt nearly impacted on his head as one of the creatures finally reacted to Zuka's presence. Zuka moved toward the one that had tried to decimate him, but he was blocked as two of the creatures rushed at him with knives on their claws. These ones proved to be more of a problem than the others. Their reflexes were faster and they harassed him but stayed well out of his killing range.

"_Time for a different tactic."_

Zuka tossed a plasma at one of the charging demons. The grenade stuck to its helmet. It let out a small scream as it tried to rip it's helmet off it's head. A sphere of blue plasma engulfed the demon. Another demon had leapt out of the blast radius, but into the range of Zuka's sword.

The demon looked up to see Zuka in his face. His sword already descending toward the demon's head. It didn't have the chance to scream. Zuka turned to face the last one and received a blue explosion of plasma in his face. The creature let loose a cry of victory, but it soon ended as the dust cleared to show Zuka's simmering energy shielding along with a very pissed off Zuka. A deep growl came reverberated in Zuka's throat. Moving confidently upon the lone demon, it back up and fired shot toward Zuka. He dodged each shot like it was some annoying obstacle. Knowing that its attempt to shoot Zuka down was producing no result it abandoned it bow and charged at Zuka.

Zuka grabbed the creature at the wrist as it swung a blow at him, halting its strike. With one smooth motion he forced the arm behind the creature, the elbow pointed at the head, a painful scream exited its mouth. Clearly enjoying the amount of pain he was causing Zuka pressed further upon the arm. A scream from another demon sounded behind him.

"_A sixth!?"_

The demon charged at him. Reacting quickly to the new threat Zuka pressed upward, with as much force as he could offer, onto the demon's arm. There was a sickening ripping sound as the demon's arm bone was forced out its' elbow. A scream exited its' maw as it felt the pain. Another dose of pain was delivered as Zuka snapped the part of the bone that was protruding out of the body. With the bone in hand Zuka flipped and turned to face this new threat, his other hand still holding onto the injured demon.

The new demon leapt at him. Zuka shot his arm forward with cobra like quickness at the demon that was still in midair. It's air way was cut off as the bone was shoved through its' exposed throat. Crumpling to the ground the creature grabbed at its' throat to try and remove the bone but it soon died under the amount of blood was loosed. Flipping the injured demon to face him Zuka stabbed the creature through the head with his sword. It fell to the ground dead.

Zuka turned back to aid the Spartan.

* * *

Bullet casings clattered to the floor as the sound of 267's M99 Stanchion fired. Two out of the group had already fallen. Whether they were injured or dead he couldn't tell. They were to far out for him to throw a grenade.

"_I need to change the battle in my favor."_ he thought as he slapped in another clip.

He peeked out from his cover and looked for something, anything to change the tide of the battle. On the wall he noticed spears sticking out, with corpses pierced at odd angles. The spears seemed to be sturdy enough to hold a body. That gave him an idea.

He began to count. Steadying himself for what was probably the most craziest plan that he had ever conceived. "3,2,1."

He charged out, his body low to the ground. Debris was shot into the air as the plasma bolts exploded around him. Moving from cover to cover was the only thing that was keeping him alive. Finally he made it to the wall. Using the spears as steps began his ascent up to the top.

One of the demons poked its head out over the ramparts looking for where the Spartan had gone. It didn't notice as the Spartan ascended the spears and used his hand to reach up and pierce the demons lower jaw and rip it out. Its' corpse slumped forward and fell to the ground. 267 hoisted himself over the top simultaneously grabbing his knife. Taking one of his flash bangs he threw over onto the demons side, temporarily taking cover behind the wall. Three of them fell to the ground clutching their ears. A fourth charged at him, both claw-like-hands held over its head. Reacting quickly 267 raised his own to stop both of the hands of the demon from descending onto him. Both of them entered a stalemate of strength. That was until the Spartan pulled the demon in close and kicked upward with his foot in the demon's chin. He ripped off both arms in that one single movement, blood poured out of the now useless stumps, it cried in pain and fell to the ground. This was all that the Spartan needed to lift his hand descend it upon the demon. The head of demon caved into its chest cavity under the force of that single blow.

The other creatures had recovered in that time. They hissed as they saw their comrade fall. All of them discarded their guns preferring to cut him up into little pieces with their claws. They all charged at him and he charged in return. He ran low and tackled the one in the middle. Using the height advantage of the creature against it he stabbed low and raised it up cutting into vital organs. It was dead. Using the forward momentum he rolled forward and turned to face the other two who had now shift direction. The one on his left tried to flay him with its right hand. He ducked under the blow and stabbed it in the armpit, where the armor didn't cover it, piercing it in the heart. He moved in to kill the next but a voice spoke, one very ancient and full of anger.

"_If you want to live move left out of the Imp's path."_

Caught off guard he had left himself momentarily open, and the only choice he had was to comply. He moved left and the now classified Imp opened its mouth in shock as it was speared through the chest. It evaporated into dust and another Imp stood behind it spear at the ready. 267 raised his knife, the creature smiled and then begun to launch into a series of blows. None made contact but the Spartan soon realized that he was equal in speed with the spear wielding Imp. He could deflect and dodge incoming blows, but was always on the defensive, which was not what Spartans were meant for. His anger grew at not being able to land a hit. As the creature swung at him again he grabbed the spear and pulled the demon closer. He smacked it on the jaw and then stabbed it in the arm. The demon kicked off him with his feet and somersaulted backwards away from the Spartan. Too the Spartan's credit he did not fall down under the force of the blow. The beast stared at him angrily as it crouched low. An orange glow appeared around the demon and it disappeared.

"_What the…"_

"_He will teleport in behind turn around and gut him."_ spoke the voice again

The Spartan turned and stabbed. The demon looked at him in utter shock. Its spear was poised ready to kill him. The stepped backwards its hand upon the wound that he had inflicted. It disappeared in the same orange light.

"_He is gone child. Left to go lick his wounds. We will not meet during this…fiasco. Though we will meet each other when I shall call upon you to aid me and save mankind. I wonder if you will be up to the task Jordan?" _

The voice left leaving disturbed and violated in the inner sanctum of what he once thought untouchable. Focus his attention on the Imp corpses he began counting the bodies. He saw that six lay upon the ground. All of them were his kills.

"Lets see two points for the one that tried to kill Zuka, and six others for a total of eight."

He turned back to peer over the ramparts to see Zuka returning triumphantly.

"Eight." Zuka shouted to him.

"Eight as well." he responded.

666

"The pair of mortals are making short work of Antilife's forces." spoke the wise one.

"They are a formidable pair. Perhaps we should take them both?" spoke the demon one.

"Zuka is honorable and follows orders. The Spartan is young…but we should have the Watcher observe him as he progresses through the trail." spoke the strongest.

The Old One said nothing but hoped that the Spartan would return soon to the mortal realm so that he could rid him of the taint of the demon that had tried to lay claim to him. The trail in away had become an arms race to see who could secure the most forces before the End War came.

666

So what do you think of the story so far? To much plot and not enough action? Please review, anything helpful will be appreciated. The next installment may take longer than normal so please be patient.


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own Halo or Doom…or any of the other games that I reference.

666

Aveon was now very worried. She had no more soldiers, and the Covenant was still here. To make matters even worse the door that led to her mainframe was beginning to buckle under the strain of the creatures trying to get in.

"Well it looks like I might have to get my hands dirty after all." she said.

Six turrets descended from the ceiling, six more rose from the floor. All of the turrets were pointed at the door.

More dents appeared as the door was pushed forward. Screams of the demons penetrated her sanctuary.

"_There's a chance that they might make it back, but if it comes right down to it… I will make sure nothing gets out alive. I hope that they make it back…."_

The turrets began to whir in anticipation, ready to shoot. Monster entered as the door removed.

"Bring it!" she challenged them.

Gunfire echoed in the condensed hallway completely obliterating the creatures. More of the creatures entered and more of them fell under the fire.

"_Because at this point hope is all I have…"_

666

267 jumped off the wall and landed with loud crunching thump as his boots connected with the stone floor. Slowly he turned to face Zuka, who walked toward him his blade humming its soft tune.

"Any idea as to how we get out of this mess?" Zuka asked casually.

"We search for another of those green portal things and hope that it leads us out of this hell hole." he responded.

Battle cries of angry demons split the air with its unnerving sound. Six of the large black armored creatures clamored into the courtyard hungry for blood. Saliva dripped from their mouths as if they could taste the flesh of their quarry.

"That is if we can survive of course…" said the Spartan.

"_Me and Zuka could barely handle one. What chance do we have against ten?"_ thought the Spartan as he leveled his rifle to fire.

Zuka unlimbered the mighty sniper rifle. He loaded a round into the chamber.

"Eat lead!" the mighty elite bellowed at the top of his lungs as he fired off the round.

One of the large creatures fell to the ground with a hole in its chest. The others seemed to be spurred on by that of their brothers death.

The Spartan reached into his grenade bandolier and extracted one of the Flame Grenades. He lobbed the grenade at one of the creatures. Surprise lit up on its face. A red explosion engulfed the beast, bathing in a chemically enriched flame. The beast did not fall down or slow down. In fact its speed increased as it rushed toward them with renewed vigor. The flames burning at its flesh. If it was going to die it was going to kill something.

Zuka tossed aside the sniper rifle so that it wouldn't weigh him down when engaged the creatures in close combat. His blade hissed as he reignited it. Bellowing out a warrior cry as both to boost his confidence and call a challenge. The one on fire was the first to meet him, but he sidestepped the creature to face more worthy foes.

Not wasting his time with figuring out the attack patterns of the creatures he charged. Blades of red plasma erupted from their hands. Zuka fought vigorously moving into the group causing damage. Limbs were severed as Zuka loped them off. Four now moved with a controlled purpose as they tried to rein in the elite. Two charged at him in a single file line. While two other crept along his sides. Not being a coward Zuka charged at the two in front of him. He rolled to the side of the first one, his blade cutting tendons in the right leg. Continuing his forward momentum he jumped up and stabbed his sword in between the collar bone of the second. Using the demon's body as a platform he braced his legs the creature and kicked off, turning in midair he swung his blade downward at the first demon that was recovering from the wound that he had inflicted upon it. A loud thump was heard as Zuka's feet hit the ground. Bearing his teeth in a feral snarl he stared down the remaining two.

The crippled demon continued to charge at Jordan with nothing but its burning body. Changing to his Spartan Laser he locked onto the beast and vaporized the upper half of its body. Turning to aid Zuka he saw the expert swordsman take down two of the demons that had charged at him. Some part of him admired the elites efficiency. Tossing a frag grenade at the two behind Zuka weakened their shields. The battle was far from over as seven more still remained the began to form a rough circle. Zuka and 267 came back to back. Zuka still had his sword and the Spartan had his knife and Flame Grenade at the ready.

Purple lightning flashed turning the demons into smoldering corpses.

"Always did hate hell knights so much devotion to anger, not enough to more recreational experiences." spoke a feminine voice.

Both turned behind them to see a purple skinned woman, no demon. The female demon had wings and horns coming out of her head. She wore tight fit clothing covered all but reviled a lot. Her green eyes looked over Zuka before flickering to the Spartan. Both had their weapons at the ready but made no movement to engage her.

"Zuka and Jordan. My name is Lilith. My master would aid you in your quest to destroy Antilife but cannot draw attention to himself at the moment. So he has sent me to aid you. Just think of me as your guardian demon."

"Oh and why would your master aid us?" asked Zuka.

"My master had no love for Antilife or the company he keeps." she responded as she seductively advanced on Zuka.

Zuka let his guard down. Their was something attractive about her the urge to mate was great.

"Who is your master?" 267 asked.

She let go of her hold on Zuka and came to the Spartan she locked her fingers on his dented helmet.

"I could tell you but spies of other Hell Lords are always watching." she kissed the helmet her acidic lips burning an imprint of her lips. "Right hand of Genocide."

Upon her the title she spoke with reverence the Spartan whipped out his knife and slashed her across the cheek. She retreated and wiped her hand over the wound. She licked her own blood and looked at the Spartan with immense interest. "Feisty. I like that. Go take the next portal it will lead you to the weapon capable of killing Antilife." Lilith then retreated through a red portal.

"That was a lot easier than I thought it would be." Jordan said as he observed the hell knight corpses.

"It was, but the only good news now is that I am winning." Zuka said.

"This game is far from over." Jordan responded.

A green light appeared in the center of the courtyard. One of the Pentagrams glowed with a green light. It was another of the transporters. Both warriors stared at it, expecting something to come out. Nothing did.

"I think they don't want to play with us anymore." Jordan said childishly.

"That or it's a trap." Zuka countered.

"So either we go in or we keep looking for another portal."

"So if it is a trap what do we do?"

"We spring the trap." Jordan said matter of factly as he walked into the portal.

"Ahh Hell." Zuka said as he rushed after the Spartan.

Zuka and Jordan exited the portal.

"_Save us."_ The voice was barely a whisper.

Demonic laughing stung their ears.

"**MY GAURDIAN WILL DESTROY YOU!"**

Heavy breathing made them turn around to face a gigantic minotaur like demon. It roared. They knew that they had sprung the trap. Now all they had to do was fight their way out.

The minotaur demon had club like hands, cloven hooves, two horns that laid on either side of the pentagram that blazed on the creatures head like a tattoo. A spiked tail thrashed from side to side. Like the other demons this one had dark grey skin. One of the oddest things about the demons was that it had boulder like fists for hands.

It hammered the ground with one of its massive fists. Plasma balls scattered in all directions. Both warriors side stepped the oncoming plasma. Two insect like creatures crawled out of the beasts skin. They flew up into the air and turned their eyes onto the two warriors.

Zuka raised his hand to his face to block the fierce spotlight glow. He was momentarily distracted. The moment the creature took advantage of. It swung one of its massive fists in his direction. Sensing imminent danger Zuka rolled out of the spotlight and avoided the creatures fists.

Jordan threw a few grenades to get the beasts attention. The fragments didn't even penetrate the creatures skin. It looked around as if it had missed something. One of the lights came upon Jordan and the Guardian's attention shifted to him. It roared and charged like a mad bull. Instinctively the Spartan rolled out of the creatures path, the creature missed, but the spotlight stayed dead on with Jordan. Turning its head the creature focused its attention back on the Spartan.

As Zuka's eyes recovered to the new dark environment he could hear the battle between the Spartan and the creature. Zuka turned his head to the battle he could see the creature as it chased after the Spartan. His mind was puzzled by what he saw. Why hadn't the creature taken advantage of weakness? Why was it chasing after the Spartan? And what was with the damn spotlight creatures?

Again the Spartan rolled out of the creatures path along with both of the Spotlights. The demon looked around confused as if it had lost the Spartan's position. Then it clicked.

"_The Guardian is blind. Destroy the creatures and the Guardian will become vulnerable." _the strange voice whispered in his head.

"Spartan aim for the flying creatures! The Guardian is blind!"

The Spartan said nothing but tossed a Flame grenade for each individual creature.

The Guardian looked around confused as to why it couldn't see. It raised itself up on its two hind legs. A blue glow appeared upon its back. Two more of the flying bugs came out. Jordan and Zuka both threw a flame grenade onto the blue orb of light. It let loose of cry of pain it drooped down on all fours, than it picked itself up and screamed in fury. The two bugs turned their spotlights on. It started hammering its fists into the ground and sending out the red balls of plasma.

The Spartan and the Elite took cover behind opposite columns.

"Zuka I want you to use your rifle. I want you to shoot down those bugs while I use the Laser took take it down." 267 yelled.

Zuka nodded and put away his sword. He turned, popped out of cover, and filled the air with lead. Both of the Spotlight creatures bathed him in their light. The first one dropped, Zuka paused in firing and targeted the next one, fired again and the second one was down.

However the creature was no where to be seen. Zuka turned to his right, and there the creature stood in all of its terrible glory. It raised both massive fists above its head. The blue orb of light shined in between its massive fists. The ruby red blasts of the Spartan Laser impacted upon the blue orb. Everything seemed to stop for a minute, the creature let loose one last cry of agony and fell forward dead. It's massive tongue rolled out of its mouth and slapped against Zuka's foot. As a twitch reaction Zuka back away from the dead beast.

Zuka turned to the Spartan and said "Well I guess that counts as two points."

The Spartan chuckled. "Zuka look out!" the Spartan yelled.

Zuka turned to see the corpse of the demon rise. Then something burst out of its chest spraying Zuka with the beasts blood. A cube shaped device with many sharp whirling blades came out of the demons chest. It rose into the air the headed straight for Zuka. Reacting out of instinct Zuka put his hands out in front of his face. He braced for impact. The impact never came. Opening his eyes Zuka saw that it floated just before his hands. Lowering his hands Zuka stared at the cube.

"Are you the voice that I've been hearing."

"_Yes." _it responded.

"What are you?" the Spartan asked.

"_We are many. We are one. We are the brilliant force. You know us as the Soul Cube. Free us from our eternal prison and we will help you. Vanquish our enemies and we grow stronger. Listen for our call. Than free us to smite down the evil." _the Soul Cube spoke.

It moved to Zuka's left leg.

"What are you…" Zuka began.

Both warriors watched in amazement as Zuka's armor seemed to ripple like water, the Soul Cube moved forward and inserted itself on Zuka's armor.

"You sure we should bring that thing with us? I think whatever creature or thing that was here should stay here."

"_I am the light. But if you don't trust me, I will show you."_

"What does that," a glowing green light enveloped them and they reappeared atop a tall tower "mean?" Jordan asked.

"_Follow the path and it will lead you out."_

A narrow black path surrounded by red lava extended outward. Both looked soldiers looked at each other and then went down the path.

"_Destroying evil gives us life and makes us stronger." _it paused _"Unleash us when you hear our call and we'll pass the life force of we slay to you."_

"_We see a great battle. The outcome is not clear. We are the only way to destroy the devil's mightiest general."_

"_No wonder Lilith's master wants us to kill this…thing. This whole scheme is an assassination. This is a power play."_ Jordan thought.

The two came upon a damaged terminal. Jordan went up and tapped a few buttons. A green light surrounded them and then they vanished.

They reappeared in what appeared to be an storage room. 267 buckled down to his knees and seemed as if he was going to puke. Zuka made retching noises as he let loose what passed as an elite version of lunch.

"Lucky bastard." Jordan thought at how lucky the elite was to be able to puke because he wasn't wearing a full helmet much like himself. He forced the bile in his throat down knowing that it would come back to bite him in the ass. No pun intended.

Wiping his mandibles with the back of his hand he removed what vomit had stuck. He rose to his feet and ignited his red blade. The Spartan had also risen and reached for his weapon to realize that it wasn't there Zuka had also lost the sniper rifle but still had his sword. Jordan was thankful that they had landed in a weapon storage area. There wasn't much in the way of weaponry. A flamethrower, couple SMGs, grenades, and a pistol. The rest of the room was filled with medical supplies.

"Which weapons do you want?" Jordan asked.

"I'm not using these primitive weapons. I'll stick with my blade." Zuka said hotly as he turned to face the door.

Jordan shrugged and hoisted an oxide tank onto his back. He also took two SMGs and a couple frag grenades. The pistol he put on his back. A small flame appeared as Jordan ignited the weapon. They nodded at each other and headed toward the door.

* * *

Fudo fired both of his plasma rifles into an advancing horde of ugly.

"Die you abominations!" he yelled.

Battle raged all around him. Brutes, Elites, and Grunts all fired their weapons. Explosions of all colors and magnitudes bathed the hallway in flashes of light.

The hunters fired plasma lances that sliced cleanly through hordes of the creatures. Brutes used the brute shots to deal massive amount of damage in tight quarters. All except for the chieftain who used his hammer to smash the demons and his honor guards that used their plasma turrets. Grunts use of aim was frantic but didn't matter against the large number of foes they were facing.

The creatures had tried to prevent their progress but they were no match for the might of the Covenant force that mowed them down like grass. Fudo was very proud of his elites that fought along side him. They were giving it there all. This was what elites lived for. Fighting, pure and simple fighting. These creatures seemed to thrive on the very same purpose.

Fudo's plasma rifle burned with such intensity that it was beginning to affect his shielding system. Everywhere he turned there was an enemy waiting to feel his rifle's burning vengeance. His white armor was scratched in places turning his once pristine armor into a battle scarred hulk. He reveled in the death he was dealing to the enemies of the prophets.

* * *

A blue flame erupted out of the flamethrower. The creatures fell screaming in a fiery death. There was one thing that Jordan liked about flamethrowers, they burned flesh quickly. More human like demons appeared their eyes were wide with lust as they rushed to taste blood.

Zuka stood behind the Spartan defending his backside. Three charged at him at once, he chopped them down in a single stroke. His sword's humming had increased into a mad frenzy of hornet's. More came only to fall at his feet.

"_Use us." _the soul cube called.

With his free hand he grabbed the soul cube and threw it at one of the demons. It shredded through the demon, and came back to Zuka's hand like a boomerang. Power flooded into Zuka giving him strength. Yelling a battle cry he charged at the oncoming monsters.

A growling pinkie came into the room looking for an easy meal. It was boiled away in blue flame.

"Barbeque any one?" 267 asked.

Zuka let out a grunt of irritation at Jordan's comment. "I hardly think that this is the time for jokes!"

"Every fear filled moment is a perfect time for a joke."

A demon hissed at Jordan in anger as it leapt out of the flames.

"Ah, don't throw a hissy fit you little bitch."

Jordan kept the pressure up on them the demons soon began to try and flank the duo but they were inexperienced soldiers facing seasoned veterans. Burnt flesh filed the corridor attracting a third party to the group. A rasping screech filled the air Zuka looked up as he stabbed one of the dogs into the face.

The demons put up a hell of a fight but these demons were just beasts, no thought beyond the hunger. They crashed upon the Spartan and Elite wave after wave.

The flame thrower was the only weapon that kept the demons at bay. They seemed to naturally fear the fire.

"_Good, they should fear it."_

Suddenly without warning red lightning appeared behind the Spartan. One of the demons landed behind him. This one was reminiscent of the bat-like creatures Zuka had faced before. It raised both sickle hands and pierced the oxide tank on the Spartan's back. Without hesitation 267 unhooked the tank grabbed it and threw tank and bug into the demon horde.

"Zuka run!" Jordan said as he turned tail.

Zuka obeyed and they ran as the black horde chased after them. The bat-demon thing removed it claw from the tank and soon gave chase. The chemicals in the tank began to leak into the air.

Zuka, stopped, turned around as soon as they were out of the corridor he slammed his fist on the control panel and the doors slide shut.

"Zuka what are you doing we have to keep going." the Spartan said without pausing.

Zuka began running to catch up to the fleeing Spartan, he got no more that three steps when a blue explosion rolled out. It engulfed all the demons following them and threw the steel door off its hinges. The explosion lifted both of them off their feet and slammed them into the far wall.

Zuka groggily got to his feet. The Spartan was already on his feet and fighting some large opponent. His visions was still blurred but he could barley make the battle unfolding before him. He shook his head and his vision cleared. As the Spartan and the creature fought some thing fell off its body. Zuka assumed that that the Spartan must have shot it half but this was disproved as the creature scuttled on several legs toward Zuka's position. It leapt at him. He caught it in mid air.

The spider creature was able to get its claws around the elites neck and pull him closer to fulfill its duty. Though the creature was small its strength was tremendous. Using both of his hand Zuka ripped the thing in half. Discarding the two halves Zuka activated his sword and screamed a battle cry. Once his blade was drawn it was his duty to ensure that it would shed blood.

The Spartan was thrown deftly threw the air and turned to face three of the demons that had somehow survived the explosion. Giving Zuka the chance to face the large creature one on one. It was a large male spider like creature. A grey carapace covered it for armor. With a roar it bent forward and charged. Two of the spider launched themselves off of the creatures back. Zuka cut both in mid air. He was forced to jump back as the creature landed on the space he once occupied. A low hiss escaped from the creature as it vehemently glared at Zuka. Bringing the blue blade in front of him he took an offensive stance.

Zuka let out a breath and the creature leapt. Rolling off to the side he avoided the creature's lunge. With a retaliation strike Zuka cut off all four legs. The creature let out a scream of pain. Taking his last Flame grenade Zuka shoved it down the creatures throat and activated the grenade. Red flames consumed the creature from the inside. It eyes were replaced with flames as they were burnt.

Turning to see 267 come up to him he saw only one SMG in his hand.

"What the hell was that thing?" the Spartan asked.

"It was carrying the Spiders." Zuka gestured to several of the beings that laid decapitated.

"So it's a Carrier then." 267 said naming the creature.

"If you want to put it as simply as that yes it is."

The floor beneath Jordan gave way and he fell to a lower floor. Zuka was about to jump down to aid the Spartan but more of the creatures rushed out of the ventilation. Activating his sword he danced his way through his opponents. They all fell from fatal well placed slashes. Turning back to the hole he saw that the Spartan was gone.

666

"The elite has won the prize." Spoke the horned one.

"Yes, and that foolish Old One has finally left." spoke the one of wisdom.

"The we are in agreement then. The elite will become one of the riders?" spoke the strongest.

"Yes." the other two said in agreement.

"Go forth out riders and bring Zuka to us." the strongest spoke to four.

All stood around nine feet tall. Three were men and one was a woman. The red one had a sword and gigantic left fist. The one with green eyes had a scythe. Another one had two massive pistols. The woman had an Energy Whip.

They bowed to their masters and left.

666

I will try to wrap up this story in the next chapter and hopefully start on the second story. So what did you think of the story? Reviews would be great.


	10. Chapter 10

I do not own Halo or Doom. Thanks to all of you that have read my story. Special thanks goes out too Mechconstrictor and Dustin B. for your encouraging and helpful reviews. Also, special thanks goes out to Revolution 25, where ever you are your doing your country proud (I'm assuming your military from your previous review), hope you make it back home safely. I'm dedicating this chapter to all those that serve or are have served in the military. May god welcome those with open arms to those that have fallen.

666

"Wake up Jordan you are safe."

Jordan's vision fluttered in out of focus as he awoke from his unconsciousness. His hand went to his head to steady himself. He felt the hair on his skin and the sweat on his brow. Snapping back into focus he took a defensive stance with balled fists. He should not have been able to feel anything because earlier he was clad in SPI armor. That meant someone had taken him while he was unconscious and removed his gear. Unlike most Spartans he was fine with not being in his armor, but in a possible hostile environment he felt vulnerable.

Their was only one figure before him it was an old man tending to the fire of a hearth. He had a black staff that he used to prod the flames. Code 1 of being a Spartan identify all possible threats. As he observed the figure he saw that his eyes were completely white and his hair a silver grey. A blue cloak with golden lining covered his body. Jordan did not let down his guard but lowered his arms. After all what threat did a blind old man pose to him?

"Come child sit." the old man said gesturing to a bench opposite him.

267 made no movement to the man's hospitable invitation. He began to observe his surroundings. Code 2 of being a Spartan know your surroundings. He made a full turn. His face made no indication to the amazing sight before him. He was on floating island surrounded by white clouds. If he was on a floating island then the thing in front of him was a floating continent. It was covered with gothic architecture of astounding creation. Stone angels with swords raised in salute to the sky. A massive dragon head extended off the continent a waterfall trickling down its open maw. High arches with colored glass covered many of the buildings. Only one thing that stood out from all this was a single giant tree that he had to crane his neck back to see even the lowest branch of the immense tree.

"The Garden of Eden the first cradle of man, and their shelter. One that is out of reach of the Swords and the Flood of a false God. Amazing is it not?" the old man spoke.

267 turned back to stare at the man who stared had at him with a smile on his old lips. He gestured to the bench opposite of him again. This time 267 took his invitation and sat across from the old man.

"Am I dead?" he asked.

"No. If you were dead I would be the first to know."

"Who are you?"

"I come at the end of all lives. I am the Angel of Death." he spoke.

Jordan stared at him with wide eyes. After all how often did you meet the Angel of Death?

"Here child you must be famished." the Angel of Death gave him a tray of meat, fruit, and bread.

Jordan accepted the food, sniffed at it first before digging in. He hadn't noticed how hungry he was. The meat went down first along with the bread. It was possibly the best food he ever had since being recruited. He sucked an orange letting the juice run down his parched throat. Looking up he saw that the old man's sight had never left him. Growing uncomfortable he asked the first question that came to his mind.

"Do you know when I will die?"

"No, I do not. What's the point of me being the Angel of Death if every event is scripted?" he asked with a wry smile.

"So fate does not exist?"

"No, but the Creator can influence events. To put in a way you can understand it. The Creator sees all outcomes and decides what the best course is for his children."

"You mean to say that this God approves of our genocidal war with the Covenant?" he said furiously as he stood up.

The Angel of Death grew quite. His gaze went back to the fire a deep frown in his face. "I will not debate with you the Creator's moral choices, our time is short and I need you."

267 stared at him a moment longer before sitting back down on the white marble bench. "Why is it that you have brought me here?" he asked. His face was blank like always during a debriefing.

"There is a collective group of beings known as the Council that govern the balance between good and evil. They have allowed the events that have been sent in motion to test to see if mortals are ready for the End War. I am not member of that council, but they do respect my opinion. The Council is gathering an army, one to punish the wicked. Whether they be the children of man, Lords of Heaven, or the Dregs of Hell. Hell is gathering more forces as each evil soul is entering Hell. Heaven is readying its arms and preparing each new recruit for battle. If the Council has its ways the End War will come quickly, far to _quickly_." the Angel of Death said as his eyes narrowed to slits as he mentioned the End War. Jordan was quiet through the entire speech waiting for him to get to the point. "In short what I want you to do is become the agent of my will. The Arbiter of the Angel of Death."

"You want me to be your Arbiter?"

"You will be my voice and my sword." he said his blind eyes staring at 267 seriously. "Possibly the one of the only few strong enough to halt the End War before it begins. You may be a Spartan. You may be an Armageddon class Alpha but you are no SPARTAN II."

267 stared at he old man, he balled his hands into fists and stared down at them.

"Why did you choose me? If you know anything about me then you know the sin I have committed with these hands." he said quietly.

"Because you can make the tough decisions. No one is beyond forgiveness." the Angel of Death said to him.

267 looked into the Angel's eyes and responded. "I accept."

"Bout' damn time you li'll whiner." spoke a gruff voice off to the left of him.

267 turned to regard this new intruder hotly, but his anger slowly died as he gazed up at the giant before him. The things shoulders topped even the head of a Hunter. It was closely human but the proportions of its body were all wrong. The bulging arms hung all the down to the knees. His shoulder was greater than his with. A short brown beard covered his chin.

"You sure you want a li'll scrapper like im?" the giant spoke.

"Ulthane…" the Angel of Death said sweetly.

"Alright, Alright. Old friend" the giant held its hands up in surrender.

"Here kiddo this is your new set of armor. Try not to scuff it up or I'll find you and give you a lickin." Ulthane said as he deposited a sack on the ground.

"I bet you say that to all the boys." 267 said smartly.

Ulthane turned to regard him and laughed loudly. "The li'll boy got a mouth. Maybe he stands a chance after all."

"Here boy here's your new and improved armor. Made by your's truly." Ulthane said as he thumped his chest with a massive fist.

The armor was similar to his hold armor but had a few differences. For starters the chest plate was thicker and supported an inverted handle for quicker grabs for his knife. It reminded him of a cross between the HAYABUSA and CQB armor that the Spartan II's used. Plating of the gauntlets and forearms were thicker. Three shallow blades extended out of the plating. Jordan looked at them curiously they were not long enough to extend past his fists. So what was their purpose? Noting that for further inquiry of the suits capabilities he continued to examine the armor. Two cylindrical devices were strapped to the armor similar to the jet packs that he had been trained with. There was extra armor plating on the sides of the hips with two magnetic holsters and finally the boots were larger which offered more protection to the feet. He began to assemble the green armor from the feet up. Placing his helmet on he felt the new weight of his armor and the judgment that he had made.

"It has all of you outdated technology with a few of my improvements." Ulthane said. 267 gave him a venomous stare that was lost to Ulthane due to the polarized visor.

"Now before you go out on your _mighty_ quest to kill the demons and save the day." Ulthane said with all the sarcasm that he could muster. "I'll need to go over the basics of the armor with you brat. You may have noticed the thicker armor. It's made of the same material of your original armor so that we don't have to worry about any _mortal_ asking too many questions. The small blades on your gauntlets can extend to about two feet. These cylindrical devices on your back are a special gift from me to you. Can't have you dying too quickly now can we? Unlike your previous armor my synthesis between machine and mind is as close to perfect as you're ever going to get. So basically you think the armor to do it and it does your desired function. Think of the blades extending and they extend, think flight and you fly."

267 thought of the blades extending and they did as Ulthane had mentioned.

"_Wait did he just say I could fly?"_ 267 thought of flight and he began to rise. Craning his neck back to see the cylindrical device he say that they had extended up past his shoulders and extended horizontally. Blue trails like feathers were emitted down from its thrusters. He began to rise quickly he though of it to stop rising him and it did, however he was a littler higher than he intended to be. He began to fall back to the ground.

"_Crap." _267 thought as he watched the ground come up to meet him.

He hit the ground hard, but like a cat he landed on his feet.

"Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I put in shock absorbers so that you didn't kill yerself from doing stupid stuff like that." Ulthane said as he watched 267 recover.

"That would be good to know."

"Spartan there is one last gift that I will give you." the Angel of Death said as he extracted a blade with glowing blue runes. It was roughly 4.5 feet long and double-edged. "This belonged to my greatest friend…before he fell to the darkness."

The 267's knife appeared in his other hand. Bringing the two blades together the metal of the blades began to melt together reforming into the knife once more. 267 extended out his hand and accepted back his knife. Ulthane watched the exchange with a pang of pain on his face.

"To call upon the blade you must know its name. Say it shall answer your call. The name of the blade is Truth Seeker. May it serve you better than its former master. Know this though the blade cannot kill any mortal, only show them the truth."

267 slid the knife into the open slot on his armor. If fit perfectly. He stared at the Angel of Death who was now his leader.

"I will send you back to the reception room that the Covenant has made their headquarters. You will join up with Zuka and the other Covenant commandoes and make a push into Delta Labs to join the remaining Covenant forces. From there you will use whatever means to kill Antilife, Betruger, and halt hell's advance."

267 nodded. He was happy that he was going back to kill Betruger. That betrayer would get what was coming to him. The angel of death began to use a combination of advance technology and energy bending to send 267 to his desired destination.

"May the Creator be with us." Ulthane said somberly watching the Spartan leave.

666

Fusa blasted another zombie back with his Plasma Repeater. His battery supply was running dangerously low. The grunts used the Shade turrets to blow apart the advancing demons but even the Shades needed time to cool down and in that time of cool down and it that period the demons would assault not in waves but one giant tsunami. If it wasn't for the abnormal sized Juko Morajamee using his immense strength to dual wield Fuel Rod Cannons they would have been ran over. The battle was not going in their favor as they were whittled down by number and ammunition. Fusa could tell that the heavy hitters were at the rear of the wave as each press brought stronger and stronger opponents. They would not last another press and he did not favor fighting in close quarters like Juko would.

Much to his surprise some of the demons began to turn around to face an unseen opponent. He doubted that it would be Fudo and the company so that only left…

RAAR Wort, Wort, Wort. Fusa knew that battle cry of his battle brother Zuka.

Wort, Wort, Wort. He chortled in the battle cry of the Elites. Juko also yelled the battle cry as well. The Covenant pressed hard hoping to end this fight now.

Another surprise came as a shockwave occurred behind their forces as a blue shockwave passed them. Turning behind him he saw a small human demon crouched down. When it lifted its helmet and stared at him he felt his heart freeze. Giving a warrior cry that drowned out all noises the human demon charged out with a blade longer than a Plasma Sword. The monsters fell quickly under the new reinforcements. Fusa knew of the Prophet's orders to kill all Demons on sight, but the survival of his team was his main concern at this point. Once the battle was over he would kill the Demon himself or die trying, but if the creatures killed him then all the better.

As Fusa held his own along Juko against the creatures a small part of him observed the Demon and his sword. As any of the creatures were touched by the blade were reduced to ashes immediately. As he tried to read the inscriptions on the blade he thought that there was something _right_ about the blade. Almost as if it held all the answers. Pushing the thought aside he observed Zuka as he fought with the Elites most honorable weapon. Zuka's blade cut a swath of pain and death as he pressed forward. Zuka was also wielding an odd weapon. It was fast and zipped around so fast that all Fusa could see of it was a bladed looking cube cutting through the monsters.

"Brother move!" the purple armored Juko said as he smashed Fuso aside of an attacking Imp. Fusa fell to the ground hard. Juko faced the Imp head on and blasted it with a fuel rod shot. The Imp was vaporized in a green cloud of plasma.

As Fusa recovered he took point before Juko as his shields recharged. Juko activated both of his plasma swords on his belt. "Now brother we shall fight and our victory over these beasts will be sung for generations!"

With that said Juko charged headlong into the mass of demons slaughtering them with a smile on his face. Leaving Fusa alone to handle the grunts.

"_Great, just what I wanted to be remembered for, a freaking song that children will chant with an enthused boredom."_ Fusa thought to himself.

The creatures didn't know who to fight. They were torn between killing the two that wielded the infernal weapons and the prey that defied them. These demons may have been meant for pure killing, but they knew nothing in the way of war. Without this knowledge or any form of leadership they were quickly and easily dispatched.

When the creatures began to thin Zuka and the Demon approached each other cutting anything that stood in their way. They met each other halfway. Fusa expected Zuka and the Demon to begin tearing into each other. Instead they went back to back and began to slice the monsters. Juko also entered the circle and placed his back to the two reducing the concentration of the Demon and Zuka to their sides.

"Grunts avoid firing upon them!" Fusa ordered taking upon his role as leader while the Commander was away.

They complied and fired around the circle the demons were blasted apart. With the inflow of demons steadily declining Fusa hope of surviving grew but a dread rose in him as more fiercer opponents joined the fray.

Metal groaned and buckled as the single entrance was bent more by hell knights to open a larger hole. Three serpent horned heads entered the enlarged door followed by the creatures large body. Rising on its hind legs the creatures body was confined to the close quarters. Its arm stretched all way down to the floor. Shade turrets on the second level began firing on the heads, but they were far more agile than they appeared. Opening their maws the heads on the sides let loose a flame of hellfire and incinerated all those on the upper balconies. The grunts above were incinerated in seconds. The middle head let loose a flame directly down the middle. The flame incinerated all in its path as it made its way to the circle of three.

Zuka dove to the left while 267 and Juko dove to the right. Juko dove too far and out of the safety of the column. He came face to face with one of the serpent heads. Right then he knew his life would end. The creature opened its maw. Tiny hands grabbed him by his back and hauled him to safety. Glancing over his shoulder he saw that it was the Demon that had saved him. Before he could comprehend why the Demon would save him it yelled out orders. "Zuka, me and this guy are going to provide a distraction! I want you to hit that thing with the Soul Cube."

"I'll go for the right head you entertain the left." the Demon spoke before bolting from his cover.

Once again Juko was speechless, but activated both blades and charged for the left head. The Demon charged the right head like he had planned. Targeting the new opponent the head opened its maw to let loose a flame. Just like 267 had planned the head was low for a low target attack, but he planned on taking the high ground. Sprinting to the nearest column he leapt above the flame and pushed off with both feet to land on top of the head. He straddled the head with his legs. Flinging his arms upward he extended the blades on both arms and lodged the blades deep in the serpent's cranial cavity.

The other two heads let out a scream of pain. Juko took the opening as an advantage and struck the neck of the left head with both blades. Its head crumpled to the ground useless. 267 may have gotten the right head's attention but it was not finished yet. It reared its head back indenting to crush the Spartan between its head and the ceiling. Acting quickly the Spartan swung over the left side and the demon smash its' skull on the ceiling. Still holding on but with one hand free he jammed the blade into lower chin of the creature and ripped it off. While this was happening the Juko snuck behind the creature and jumped on its back. He observed the Demon as it combated the serpent head. He reached out his arm and caught the arm of the Demon before it fell to the ground.

"Get the left wing I'll take the right." Juko said as he tossed the Spartan to the left wing.

The Spartan wrapped both his hands around the left wing and pulled. Juko took the right. Both grunted under the effort, finally their was a ripping noise as both wings parted from the flesh of the body.

Zuka stabbed the last monster in the chest. Facing the meanest creature he had ever faced he stared at how much damage they had caused the creature. He admired both of his comrades' handy work on the single demon.

"_Release us."_

Taking the cue Zuka activated the device and charged forward. "Fusa aim for the head." he commanded his subordinate. The monster was reeling from all the damage that it had taken, with the addition of plasma to the face it stood no chance. With the Elites double jointed legs he crossed the distance quickly. With his left hand he stabbed forward with soul cube right into the creature's chest. It let loose one final scream before fading to ash. Energy filled Zuka's blood as the creature reduced itself to ash.

The threat was over but the Demon was still alive along with the Elites and a few Grunts. Juko was the first to charge with his fists only. 267 raised his arms to combat the charging Elite, but his caution was unnecessary as Zuka intercepted. Zuka had his hand against the larger Elites chest.

"Peace brother he is with us." Zuka said.

"Why do think I didn't try to kill him? If I wanted him dead I would have charged with my blades" Juko responded still eyeing the Spartan wearily.

"You sure we can trust him? He is after all a Demon. Though I have never seen an armor style like his in the combat holo vids." Fusa said as he approached with his Plasma Repeater leveled at the Spartan.

"I have been fighting along side him while I was gone. He can be trusted." Zuka said now scrutinizing the Spartan's new armor.

Fusa said nothing but lowered his weapon. Juko also backed off. The intensity of the room slowly evaporated as the group slowly distanced from one another.

"I came here to help you guys kill these demons."

"The only demon I see is the one still breathing." Fusa said.

"Fusa still your anger." Juko said to his shorter comrade.

Fusa found it odd to be told to calm down by the normally hot headed Elite. Zuka stared him warily. Taking it as a sign to calm down Fusa turned his back. "I'll check on the Grunts and whatever's left of the weaponry."

"So Spartan were have you been?" Zuka asked staring down the young Spartan III.

"I was with…those that oppose the Demons entry on to this plane of existence." the Spartan said choosing his words carefully.

Zuka nodded looking at the Spartan and the blade in his hands. Zuka was a smart Elite he probably had been able to put two and two together.

"I take it Commander Fudo has headed to Delta Labs to retrieve the artifact?" Zuka said.

"Yes brother we have stayed here to prevent an enemy incursion. The fault for our subordinates deaths are our own. If we had known of such a massive offensive of the beasts the crisis might have been averted. If it wasn't for you human prisoner we wouldn't have been able to fortify our position. What little good it did us." Juko said as he observed the bodies of the demons turning to ash and the Covenant soldiers that lay slain upon the ground.

"Human prisoner?" Jordan asked with a slight edge to his voice. He knew what the Covenant did to prisoners of war.

"None of the humans were harmed." Zuka said in self defense and to calm any stray thoughts of violence from the Spartan.

"Humans?" asked the Spartan now curious as to how many survivors were present.

"There are two of your males in the holding cells. Neither has been harmed but it might be good for you to speak with them...Demon." Juko said to the Spartan.

The Spartan merely nodded in headed in the direction of the holding cells. He had noticed that the Elite hadn't mentioned any Spartans but that didn't let the hope he had die.

"Zuka you should also go speak with the youngling…he has been worried for your welfare." Juko once he was certain the Spartan was out of earshot. Zuka nodded and headed in the direction of the cells until Juko's hand caught him on the shoulder. "For the sake of the human you need him to hate you. It's the only way he will be able to survive."

"What do you mean by that?" Zuka asked threateningly.

"The young are highly impressionable he may wish to stay with you. After losing his guardians he may be seeking for a figure of authority and comfort. The other members of the Covenant will seek his head for what he is. This cannot be changed. If you want to save him your going to need to as the human's put it 'burn this bridge'. I say this brother because I don't want you or him to suffer." Juko said.

Zuka winced at Juko bluntness to the truth. Perhaps that was why Juko was merciful upon the humans' non-combatants he did not like to see suffering. Sighing in defeat to Juko's logic he moved forward to the holding cells with a heavy burden upon his shoulders.

He could see 267 talking in hushed tones far away from Jack and any other Covenant. Good he could use the privacy. The boys face lit up as he saw Zuka approach. This cut a knife deep into Zuka's heart, but he moved on. This needed to be done.

"Zuka your back…" Jack's voice was choked as he saw the look on Zuka's face.

"_He's stayed around long enough to know Elite facial expressions."_ Zuka thought before he spoke. "Runt the only reason I kept you alive was to get information out of you. The only I pretended to be protecting you was so that I could use you as bait. Now that your purpose has been filled you are useless to me."

With that said he turned hotly and left. The knife had dug itself deeper into his heart. He dared not look back for he knew that the façade he was playing would fall apart and Jack would know. For a second Zuka considered doing just that so Jack would know that he was just trying to protect him, but no he continued on for Jack to survive.

The Spartan observed the whole conversation while listening to Ishii's status and report.

"For my safety and that of the child I agreed to the Covenant's demands." Ishii said trying to make an effort to the human side of the Spartan. He knew full well that the ONI weapon of war had full right to kill him for offering aid to the enemy.

The Spartan nodded before asking "All navigational data was wiped and no Intel was leaked to the Covenant?" He may be working with Covenant but that was mostly out of necessity not out of comradeship, save for Zuka. Information regarding the safety of other human planets such as Earth at the forefront of his mind.

"No the data was purged during the outbreak fearing that the creatures' might have been advanced enough to understand. When I had received access to a computer I made sure myself that the data was wiped. Only nonsensitive data remains along with limited access through out the facility. If someone wanted to reach the restricted access areas they would need to get permission from Aveon the Smart AI that helps run this facility." Ishii said as he rubbed his hands together in a nervous fit.

"Good." he said flatly leaving Ishii alone and heading toward the child.

He rested his hand on the child's shoulder. The child turned to him with tear filled eyes.

"When this is over you'll be safe and I will make sure that we find any remainder of our family." the Spartan said knowing that the likelihood of any remaining family was unlikely, but at least he could give the kid hope.

"What's the point my mom and dad are dead just like the rest of them." Jack responded.

"Hope abandons us when we abandon it." he said giving the only sage advice that he knew.

"Go with the Ishii he will take care of you until I can get back." he said nudging the boy in the doctor's direction. The boy said nothing but obeyed what the Spartan had ordered.

After watching the boy leave 267 turned and followed after Zuka. The Spartan had to jog a bit to catch up to the Elite.

"I know what you did and why you did it." the Spartan said leaving the subject in the air. If Zuka wanted to talk about it he would speak, but the Spartan would not press him into talking about a subject that he didn't want to.

"Let us see how Fusa fared in obtaining weapons." Zuka said changing the subject.

"Brother what do we have?" Zuka asked as Fusa turned toward him.

"The whole thing is damned. We have no functioning Shade turrets. Only ten grunts remain and only six of them are combat ready. All of the heavy weapons are gone save for two Fuel Rod cannons, and to make things worse our battery supply for our light weapons are dangerously low." Fusa said in a furious tone.

"Did you include the Brute inventory?" Zuka with sarcastic tone with his arms crossed as if he already knew the answer.

"No I would never use their weapons. Mechanical combustion is weak and anything that has been brushed by their hands is rife with their stench. You're not suggesting we use them?" Fusa responded.

"We're going to be initiating an assault on Hell and kill one of their top generals along with a traitor. Yeah I think were going to need some weapons." 267 said aloud.

"Last time I checked you weren't the commander." Fusa said hotly staring down at the Spartan.

"Brother what he says is true I will go there and complete the mission with or without you." Zuka said eyeing Fusa.

Fusa turned to Juko for support but once he saw the gleam in Juko's eyes he knew that he had lost the argument.

"Fine if we use the Brute's weaponry then we might stand a chance. The Brute supplies are stationed over there." Fusa said with defeat.

The Spartan turned and headed over to the brute portion side of the barracks, Juko followed after him. Zuka remained behind with Fusa. Setting a hand on the smaller Elite's shoulder Zuka said "I take it by we you mean that you will be joining us?"

"Yes, brother if both of you go off to fight some great enemy and I remain here what would that say of my blood? Of my honor? Besides I couldn't let the great fool get hurt in some stupid quest for glory." Fusa said as he headed off after Juko, with Zuka following behind.

666

"So what do we have here?" the Spartan asked. He had faced Brutes before but never really had a chance to examine their armaments.

"This here is the Brute Shot." Fusa said lifting a massive weapon with a deadly blade on the underside. "It fires grenades, sort of like your humans grenade launcher, but is capable of carrying up to six shots."

"The next weapon is the Brute Spiker." Fusa said holding a hand gun with two blades beneath the barrel jutting forward like claws. "It has a high rate of fire but lacks at a range."

"This is the Mauler." Fusa said holding another hand gun with a single blade attached to the grip. "It is high close quarters weapon but lacks ammunition storage. Is only capable of firing five shot before manual reload is required."

"Why do they have blades on all their weapons, were they trying to compensate for something?" the Spartan asked in a humorous tone.

Fusa stared at him with a confused look until he caught onto the Spartan's humor. He wasn't quite able to suppress a chuckle.

"The last weapon in the brute's personal arsenal was the Brute Plasma Rifle." Fusa stared at the weapon with disgust. "This bastard perversion of our rifle is slightly faster but over heats quickly."

"I suggest that we load our selves with whatever we can carry without being weighed down. Then have the remaining grunts and humans prepare the Shadows' and Spectures' for our departure." Zuka said taking charge of the operation. The others nodded in agreement. One way or another this war would be over.

666

"All of the grunts and humans are ready." Fusa said as he returned from aiding the departure group. His movements were slowed under all of the equipment on his person.

Fusa had taken all of the Plasma based weaponry he could get a hold of. He had one Plasma Repeater as his primary weapon. Two Plasma Rifles were magnetically clamped on to his thighs. Two Plasma Pistols were on his lower legs. A bandolier of grenades were tied around his waist. Finally to complete his armament a Plasma Sword was bound to the left side of his chest.

Juko's armament hadn't changed much. He had two Fuel Rod Cannons with plenty of ammo. Two Plasma Swords were on his thighs one for each side. On his lower back he had two Needlers. Juko also had a bandolier of grenades but there were tied on to his over right shoulder.

Zuka had incorporated a vast armament. He had a Carbine strapped across his back. Two Plasma swords were adorned one to each thigh. He held a Covenant Plasma Turret in both hands. Like the others he carried a bandolier of grenades in an X-pattern over his chest.

The Spartan may have been smaller but he carried the heaviest load out of them all. He held a Plasma Turret with both hands. A Brute Shot was strapped across his back. Two Brute Plasma Rifles were magnetically clamped to the small of his back. Two Spikers were bound to his thighs and below that were two Maulers. Completing his load out were grenades around his belt.

"You sure you have enough?" Fusa asked the Spartan scoffing slightly at how heavily burdened the Spartan was.

"Going up against the Legions of Hell I am going to err on the side of overkill. You sure you have enough?" the Spartan responded in a level tone.

"Our names shall be written in legend! Even yours demon." Juko said with enthusiasm as he marched forward in to the darkness. Both swords at the ready.

"He's going to get us all killed." the Spartan and Fusa said simultaneously. They both looked at each other in shock. Zuka chuckled at the two as he followed Juko.

666

In the room the room of Delta Labs there was darkness. Bodies of Covenant soldiers littered the floor along with the foul demons. There was more than one betrayer of the mortals that had been lead astray by the promises of the Damned One. Konstantin stood over Ragnor. The Chieftans Hammer in his hand. He gazed into Ragnor's eyes and watched the fury slowly fade as his former Chieftain died. Konstantin's body had changed dramatically due to his demonic infection. He stood twice as tall as any Brute, but his transformation did not end there. He now had six limbs, two more arms had been added below his other joints. His mouth had been replaced with a snout. On the snout he bore no lips and his fangs jutted at award angles changing the already terrifying Brute to something out of a child's nightmare.

"You should not have opposed me. Now you lay here making your pitiful attempts to hold onto life. Do not despair though as you come to the end of your existence. Your body will join the ranks of the dead. The Dark Forerunners have need of your services, more battles await you." Konstantin said as he watched Ragnor struggle to breathe.

"Yes plenty of more battles await you." said a lithe purple feminine demon. Lilith approached the much massive creature without a sign of fear.

"Lady Forerunner Lilith you honor us with your presence." Konstantin said as he fell to one knee and bowed his head in respect.

"I have a gift for you from my master. One that will bring the Covenant to glory." Lilith said as she extended her open palm to the demon that was even on his knees twice as tall as she was. In her palm she held several vials. "These contain the secret to your transformation. Give them to your leaders and have it reproduce it to give to their army. You will have a force unparallel in power. The Human home world will fall." Lilith finished saying in her scheming the demon to spread the Demon Plague to the Covenant forces.

"Your will be done." Konstantin said reverently.

"What of the Elite and Hunters that escaped through the portal?" he asked.

"Antilife's forces will make short work of them." Lilith responded casually as she examined her long nails. "Has the A.I. been dealt with?"

"No, we are still working end her. She is heavily guarded"

"I'll handle her." Lilith said stretching out her legs.

"But…" Konstantin stammered.

"This requires a woman's touch." Lilith said licking her lips. This A.I. could be useful in her scheming.

"You are a fool Konstantin. She is no Forerunner. The Forerunners would never lead us astray from the path. Whatever she has given you will be the downfall of the Covenant. Our fall shall be the result of your mistake." Ragnor croaked trying to get one last rise out of Konstantin and hopefully prevent his body from becoming a slave.

"I was wrong Ragnor you are not worthy of the Forerunner's Salvation." Konstantin said as he raised the Hammer. Demonic power coursed up and down the Hammer perverting the weapon. The hammer head and become a scythe like blade. With a growl Konstantin plunged the blade into Ragnor's chest. A smile spread across Ragnor's face as he had achieved what he had set out to do. The Scythe had delayed the Gravity impulse but once it was unleashed it ripped apart Ragnor's body in a balloon like effect.

666

Light from flashlights enveloped the dark corridors of the underground lab as the four mortals made their way to the gate that led to Hell. None of them spoke for they were listening to the slightest sound of the Demons that may or may not lurk in the dark. The lack of enemy forces bode a sense of ominous intentions. The Spartan and Zuka took the lead with the human flashlights strapped to the Plasma Cannons with the UNSC Army green tape. Fusa took center with Juko covering the rear. Juko had argued about it earlier but shut his mouth as they made their way through the darkened interior. Eventually they had made it to the lab that had caused them all this trouble.

"I recommend that Juko goes in first with his Fuel Rod Cannons with me and Zuka on the sides and have Fusa cover the rear if we need to make a hasty retreat." 267 said.

"You made you leader?" Fusa said with venom.

"Bah! We are warriors we will not retreat in the face of overwhelming odds." Juko said mightily his voice low but powerful. The tank on legs advanced forward with a shit eating grin.

"Cover rear." Zuka said to Fusa sternly as he and the Spartan flanked Juko.

Fusa muttered an unintelligent remark but brought his Plasma Repeater to bear. Juko advanced forward and the doors parted before him. 267 and Zuka tensed as they moved forward.

Juko's smile disappeared to one of disappointment before turning aghast to the horror before him. Covenant soldiers were dead and mixed in with the corpses of those that they had fell.

"By the honor of Shanghelios!" Juko said in horror.

The Spartan felt nothing for the dead Covenant but was thankful for his polarized visor which hid his facial emotions as well as he hid his own. His allies were grieving over their loss comrades. That was something he could respect seeing how his generation of Spartans had been whittled down to only a few. If the others weren't dead then he was the last one.

"The Commander and the Hunters are not among the bodies." Fusa said as he did a quick scan of the bodies.

"Then where are they?" Zuka asked no in particular.

"There is only one way they could have gone." 267 said gesturing with his weapon to the portal.

All of them looked at each other unsure of the other's resolve in this decision. Each went for their own reasons. Juko went for glory of battle and the love of his brothers in arms. Fusa went so that his bloodline was not shamed and to make sure that his friends survived. Zuka went because his honor demanded that this enemy be killed to save everything. 267 went for the most common purpose of a warrior, vengeance. However their was another reason 267 went and that was for hope of redemption.

"Last chance for any sane person to leave." 267 said loudly.

Not one of them back down. Even though they were here for different reasons their resolve was strong. They would not back down from this. There was a brief period of silence before they all burst out laughing. For a better or worse they were going to Hell.

Turning to the portal they entered at the same time. They were a wall of firepower pointed at the head of hell.

666

Kill, kill, and kill was all that the group did as they fired into the demons. Imps, Pinkie's, and Hell Knights all charged them. They were not even a meter from the portal and they were all ready getting assaulted. 267 was thankful that the demon bodies disintegrated to dust which gave them a clean line of fire. His Plasma Cannon was half way spent from the continuous fire.

"_Where do they keep coming from?"_ 267 wondered.

"_The Archville Lords are summoning them to fend you off. Only five guard the portal kill them and the tide of demons will end. Your friend Zuka has fought a low Archville before"_ Spoke that old and angry voice that had aided him against that teleporting Imp.

"_Where are they at?"_ asked back in his own head hoping who ever was speaking to him would be able to answer him.

"_They form a semicircle around the portal. Each is about 25 meters in each direction from the portal. One lies directly ahead of you. Two to the left of the center and two right from the center." _responded the distinctive male voice that sounded obviously pleased by something.

Putting aside the violation of his mind and the disturbing voice he got ready to charge. What happened next baffled, scared, and relieved him at the same time. Blue NAV points were placed on his HUD signifying the location of each on of the Archvilles.

"Zuka, I know what's causing this mass of demons to converge on us! I need to push through these demons to get to the other side to kill the demons. They're like the one you fought before."

Zuka was momentarily caught off guard by 267's talk of him fighting an Archville before. He had never mentioned it to the Spartan before. Going back to the fighting he realized that the Spartan could have seen in on one of the cameras stationed through out the base.

"Go Spartan! We will hold here. Juko get back here and start using those Fuel Rod Cannons. Fusa give us some breathing room with the grenades!" Zuka yelled taking charge of the of the FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) situation.

"Fusa take my Plasma Cannon!" 267 said as he tossed the weapon to Fusa.

Fusa didn't lose the amount of fire he rained down as he put the Plasma Repeater on his back and switched to the Plasma Cannon.

267 now thought it was an opportune time to try out some of the other weapons in the Brutes arsenal. Reaching behind his back he grabbed the handle of the Brute Shot. He fired the shot in short burst. The propelled grenade would explode on contact with a demon and send shrapnel spinning in a large radius. He would advance upon the pocket that had been made by the demons and fire again. He was quickly separating himself from the groups' fire. The draw back was now he didn't have their supporting fire and now had to be more concerned from attacks from behind. The only good part was that he was making progress through the throng of demons. Hellknights took a little more to take down but he would not be deterred.

10 meters from first objective

His clip ran dry and he had no time to reload as Imps converged from all sides. He made extremely good use of the blade on the Brute Shot. He gutted Imps spilling their vital organs over the ground. Stabbing and slashing was all that he did as he tried to get a moment to reload. He gained three seconds and did not waste that precious amount of time. Fully reloaded he pressed forward firing.

5 meters from first objective

Five Hellknights stood between him and his objective and they were not going to stop this Juggernaut. They threw the plasma orbs at him with deadly accuracy. 267 was only able to dodge each shot by inches due to his enhanced reflexes. It took two accurate body shots from the Brute Shot to take one Hellkinght. By the time the clip was empty only two remained.

3 meters from first objective

Reaching into his belt he brought up a Plasma Grenade and tossed it to the one to his right. It lodged to the creatures' skull. The Hellknight attempted in vain to remove the grenade that had adhered to its face but that last thing it saw was a flash of white. Only one Hellknight remained.

The two charge each other with equal ferocity. The Hellknight may have had prodigal strength but it was as slow as sin. Before it even knew what had happened the Spartan had closed the distance and lodged the blade into the creature's lower abdomen.

267 gazed upon the drooling dumbfound face of the Hellknight.

"You want to know why it sucks to be fighting a smaller opponent in a knife fight?" the demon heard as he looked into the golden one of the green clad mortal seeing only his expression of surprise.

"The small guy has to stab up to hit vital organs which means the cut is deeper and more likely to kill." 267 said as he stabbed upwards cutting through intestines, stomach, and liver. The tip of the blade stabbed into the bottom ventricles of the creatures four chambered heart.

Taking the blade out and turning in one smooth motion the Spartan closed on the Archville Lord. It had one last chance to summon one final creature before the Spartan had jumped and severed its head. The last beast the creature had summoned was none other than a Dark Hellknight. Rising to its full height it bellowed a challenge.

"Sorry but I'm going to have to make this quick." the 267 said as he tossed the Brute Shot end over end at the Hellknight.

It let out a startled gasp as the blade punctured beneath the sternum. 267 ran forward as quick as he could. He needed to end this now. Using the Brute Shot in lodged in the creature as a stepping stone he was able to come face to face with it. Grabbing the Covenant's infamous sticky grenade he stuck it to the top of the creature's mouth with his left hand. With his right hand he hit the bottom of the jaw and lodged the mouth close as both top and bottom of the mouth sealed together.

"And just for good measure." 267 added as he palmed sticky grenade to each side of the Hellknights head. With that done he kicked off the creature's chest and out of the blast radius.

267 watched as all three grenades went off decapitating the Hellkinght. The Spartan watched with faint amusement as the once adversarial opponent had fallen so easily.

"One down four more to go." he said to himself. In the back of his mind he could hear that awful voice laughing.

He grabbed the Spikers on his thighs and started to go about his bloody business once more. Anything that got in his way was filled with spikes or was pistol whipped into bloody ribbons due to the nasty bayonet on the Spiker. As far as weapons went these were by far his favorite out of the Brute arsenal. He was naturally a close quarters fighter.

One of the Archville's had tried to run from him but it was all for naught as it fell to the ground with a Spikers plunged deep into its spine. The Archville was still alive and pitifully tried to crawl away. That was until the Spartan grabbed the Spiker by its' handle, twisted and ripped it out.

The flow of demons had begun to lessen making it easier for the Spartan to traverse the rocky terrain of Hell. Which was good because the ammo in his Spiker had begun to dwindle to nothing. He could still here the Elites fighting along with the occasional roar which was then followed by screams. If he had to bet on which Elite was roaring he would guess it was Juko.

And he was right. Juko was having the time of his life. His blades seemed to scream at him for blood, and blood they had. Blood of fallen demons drowned the ground. He had long ago lost the ability to his Needlers and Fuel Rod Cannons due to the fact that he had ran out of ammo. He cut, stabbed, slashed, and inflicted the most amount of pain upon his hellish combatants. The only thing he prayed for was that his brothers would raise their blades and join them in glory.

The only thing Fusa was praying for was that his moron of a comrade would get some sense knocked into him and get back. Juko only needed to mess up once to get swarmed over and killed. Even though the flow of demons had begun to subside in ferocity it did not alter the fact that they were outnumbered a few 30 every one of them. Fusa cursed in the human language finding the word appropriate. He may have hated the humans but he loved them for their use of colorful language.

Zuka, like Fusa, had drained all of his Plasma Cannon battery into the Demon horde rendering the weapon useless. The ammo in his Carbine had begun to dwindle with each press of the trigger. Soon he would have to use his Plasma Rifles or his Plasma Swords together or separately. He hated having the Spartan on his own. He may have been damned by the Prophets by what he was but that didn't change the fact that the Spartan was a greater comrade than an enemy.

"Damn." Zuka muttered as the ammo counter on his HUD fell to 00.

Now that the weapon was useless as a gun he used it as a kludging instrument. By the time he discarded the weapon by chucking it in the face of an Imp the Carbine was bent in several different directions.

His hands grabbed both Plasma Rifles and rushed into the fray. He used the Plasma Rifles both to shoot and to bludgeon when they were overheating. Juko roared at him in acknowledgement before returning to the bloody foray. Fusa was left cursing at his luck for being the only sane and smart one of this odd allied group.

There was only one Archville left now as he dragged one of the Spiker's blades out of the back of the mouth of the now dead Archville. Screeching of demons dragged his attention to one of the cliffs that over looked his position. A massive amount of powerful demons stood around the last Archville. Among the group were red armored skeleton beings with rocket launchers mounted on their shoulders. Another type looked like a cross between a man, a walrus, and a Hunter. The weird cross had cannons in the place of guns. The last type was a floating head with filled with razor sharp teeth. Some how even though the creature was just and head the mouth seemed a lot larger than the head.

"_Archville, Reveant, Mancubs, and Cacodemon oh my!"_ The voice spoke in his head once more identifying the different hell spawn before him.

"Damn… Well who dies first?" he asked the demons.

A sudden primal roar diverted the attention of all those present. Juko had burst through the demon line and had somehow ran straight into the stalemate between the Demon and the Demons.

"You want a piece of the action?" 267 asked Juko.

Juko only responded with an Elite version of a grin.

"You have to take the ugly ones though." the Spartan responded.

"Quick question which ones are the ugly ones?"

The Spartan was about to open his mouth to respond but was cut short as the demons ran, floated, or shuffled to their position. Elite and Spartan met the demons rockets, homing rockets, claws, and teeth with plasma and metal.

The Spartan aimed at the rockets as they assailed to their position. He shot the rockets as they got close to other demons aiding them in killing more demons. They were two were outnumbered 15 demons for each one of them. The large cross breed seemed to be the leader for each of the division units. They weren't very effective communicators as all they did was moan softly or moan loudly.

The two cut a decent enough path through them. The Spartan knew that he had to get to the Archville before it summoned more demons and the Elite was either following the Spartan or was moving into the most ferocious part of the battle.

267 ran past multiple demons either he decreed them good enough to kill or to far away to be even worth spitting at. The Archville was his goal. The Archville was still perched on the cliff observing the battle. It sent out Hellfire at the two hoping to kill one or at least both. Even though it was effective at summoning minions to its side it was highly ineffective at aiming. Which was going to cost it its' life.

The Spartan used only his feet to elevate up the short cragged cliff. He lunged forward with his Spiker. His intent was impale it but the Archvilles face was so narrow that if fit in between the blades, aligning the barrel with the bottom of the creature's chin. The last spike in the Spikers was fired directly into the bottom of the chin and pierced the top of the creature's skull. The Archville could have tried to maim his killer but was too dumbstruck at its' own death that it could reach up with its' right arm and feel the large whole on the top of its' skull.

Turning his attention to the battle below he saw that even though he had succeeded in killing the Archville he had left Zuka cornered at the bottom of the cliff. Acting on instinct he jumped down and tossed both Spikers end over into two of the skull demons. One died upon impact the other had enough time left to reach up and grab the hilt of the spiker that had lodged both blades in its eyes.

Hitting the ground he extended his claws and stood back to back with Juko. The Spartan covered the Elite's left side and the Elite covered the Spartan's right side. They were surrounded by five of the remaining Reveants and two Mancubus. All of them had rockets leveled at them. The likely hood of them surviving this close of rocket toting demons was grim.

"It will be an honorable death to die next to you brother."

The Spartan grinned behind his helmet. "Same here. We may die but we can at least rip a few of them apart!"

The two were about to charge but a shock wave sent them both back against the cliff. Green Plasma enveloped most of the Revenant. Both Mancubus turned to face this new threat. One Mancubus was lifted off the ground as a golden Hunter collided with it. The other Mancubus was knocked backwards as the other blue Hunter nailed it in the face with its shield. The Mancubus had been knocked back but it was far from out. It retaliated with punch of its cannon at the blue Hunter. The Hunter had been prepared for this and grabbed its cannon with "fingers" on the barrel of its cannon. The two were locked in a stalemate of brute strength. The faint whine was the only indication to the Mancubus of what was about to happen. It fired the same time as the Hunter did. Both were thrown in opposite directions. The Hunter landed with a heavy thud. It weakly came to its' behemoth sized feet.

"Ha…I win." it said as it saw the remains of the Mancubus.

The other Hunter had slammed its' Mancubus into the cliff opposite of Juko and 267. The Mancubus screamed as the spines of the Hunter tore out its' flesh. The golden Hunter leveled its' own weapon at the head of the Mancubus. Acting faster than believed possible the Mancubus used both of its arms cannons and directed the Fuel Rod away from its face. Both were sent flying. This had bought the Mancubus a few more moments of sucking oxygen. It noticed a shadow block out the light. It only saw the massive boot of the hunter before its' world ended. The Hunter had curb stomped the Mancubus.

"_Punk."_ the Golden Hunter warbled in its own language as it rubbed its' foot side to side over brain matter and skull bits.

As the Spartan and Elite recovered from the shockwave one of the Revenant demons had recovered and had locked one cannon for both of them. It would have fired had it not been killed on the spot by Commander Fudo. His blue Plasma Sword piercing the chest of the demon.

"Commander…" Juko whispered revreantly.

"Juko and…Demon." Fudo said loudly.

"Damn where did that bastard Juko go?" Fusa grumbled as he crushed the last breathing demon beneath his feet.

"He was heading off in that direction." Zuka said pointing off to a valley. Multiple explosions were heard. It sounded like a human rocket launcher but it was impossible that none of them had one and the human did not bring one. There was a long silence that was punctured by the unforgettable explosion of a Hunter discharging its' weapon.

Both Elites scrambled over the mound of corpses in that direction. If the Hunters were still alive than it was possible that so was the Commander. Both ran into the valley weapons at the ready. By they got to the sound of the fighting it was already over.

Fudo had just killed the last demon and was eyeing the Spartan with deadly intent. Zuka looked over his shoulder at Fusa who nodded. They had to intercept the Commander before he or the Spartan was killed.

Fudo raised his blade staring down at the Spartan and his subordinate Juko.

"Why are you working with this heathen?" Fudo spat with venom, but raised his hand telling the Hunters to hold their fire...for the moment.

"Our brother has been aiding us in the fight against the demons." Juko responded with respect but not being cowed by the smaller Elite.

"Demon? Brother? Do you not here the words coming out of your mouth!" Fudo responded furiously."

"Even you admire these Demons for their honor and skill on the battlefield." Juko responded.

The Commander was not taken aback by these words. "True they may be but he is still our enemy! The Prophets have declared him so! The greatest threat to the path of the Great Journey."

"You ever think that the Prophets could be wrong?" Juko responded hotly.

Fudo was taken aback by this however. "Is this how you truly feel Juko? Has the path before you offered you no happiness?"

"I am delighted in fighting human combatants. My blood yearns for combat, you know this. I am ashamed that we have stooped to the level of executioners. No we are worse than that, we are murders! We fight against opponents that do not know how to even wield a weapon! Tell me what honor is there in fighting defenseless women and children?" Juko responded to Fudo finally revealing his feeling for the Cleansing War.

Fudo said nothing only stared at Juko with mixed feelings of fury, resentment, understanding, and perhaps even pity. There was a certain truth in what he said. Murders were the most heinous beings in Elite culture. Murders were ones that shed blood without the intention of gaining honor. They killed indiscriminately and without the slightest notion of respect for ones opponent. It went against everything the Elites believed in.

"Brother…." Fudo said softly.

Zuka and Fusa had both gotten in front of the Spartan and the Elite. Fudo stared unbelievingly at the two. The Hunters stilled had their weapons humming ready to fire when ready.

It was dead silent as Fudo contemplated how to proceed. The slience was broken as dumb fired rockets rained upon their position. The blue Hunter was shot down in the back and fell down screaming the other golden hunter moved to cover his brother. The Elites responded by firing at one of the Mancubus that had escaped the Hunters' slaughter. It was faraway and was not bothered by the Elites small weapons fire.

The Spartan ran at the Mancubus as it slid down the steep cliff. It fired it weapons as fast as it could planning on killing as many as it could. When the Mancubs had slid down the full incline of the cliff it launched out with a double hammer fist intending to squash the Spartan, but 267 was far too nimble and hard headed to be killed by a single strike. He dodged to the side and planted his boot on the forearm of the creature to get closer to the head of the Mancubus. He lashed out with his right hand, the claws fully extended. The weapon popped the eye socket and stabbed into the gray matter inside the creature's skull. He wasn't done yet as he pulled up and ripped head and spinal cord in a furious tug.

267 tossed the skull at Fudo's feet. "I'm not here to kill you. My purpose is too kill these demons that are threat to both the Covenant and Humanity. Now we could scrap it out, but I for one would like to reserve my strength for a common enemy that we share."

Fudo stared at the Spartan grudgingly before focusing his attention on the wounded Hunter.

"He will live but the armor on his back is totally gone." Fusa said as he kneeled down by the recovering blue Hunter.

"Demon I believe that I have found a use for you after all." Fudo said with a smile. The Spartan did not like that smile.

666

"This is so fucking stupid!" 267 roared as he clung to the back of the blue Hunter for dear life. He fired his Brute Plasma Rifle with occasional bursts into the Demon horde while the Hunter's Fuel Rod Cannon cooled down.

The Commander of the SpeOp Elites had not so gently tossed him onto the back of the Hunter. He had argued with the Commander, but the Commander ended it by saying "Mount the Hunter!" This had earned some giggles from Fusa.

Commander Fudo was pleased however with how things were turning out. The Demon on the Hunter was two fold to his plan. For starters it put the Human far away from his Elites and made it that much easier for him to order his troops. Second it put the Human in the danger zone where he was most likely to get killed.

"This feels so wrong." 267 murmured as he took cover behind the Hunter.

"How do think I feel considering you tore off the head of that fat blob!" the Hunter roared as it bashed aside several Imps.

"Not what I meant…do you even have a head? Aren't you just made up a bunch of worms?"

"Just…just shut up." the Hunter yelled sounding a little bit offended.

267 felt every bounce as the Hunter walked, ran, and curb stomped. "I'm going to be saddle sore."

The only good news was that they were nearing what he supposed was the lair of the leader of these demons. A tall black tower stood before them. The tower was immense to say the least. With good news also came the bad news. There many demons in between them and their objective.

Zuko fought along side his brothers while the Hunters took the lead. He had only heard a little of the conversation between Fudo and Juko. He had fight alongside Juko for many years but never really knew how he felt about the war. It would explain the foul expression on Juko's face and why he kept as close as he could to the front busying himself with fighting. Fudo just seemed happy to have his troops back and be in control.

The Hunter with the Human on his back was busy trying not to think of the Human on his back. It was hard to resist his combat instincts which told him to kill the Demonkind that had killed so many of his brethren, and after seeing what he did to all those other…demons did not help.

His brother must have felt the same way because he stayed close to him casting the occasional warning glance to the back of the Spartan's head. He turned his head to see his brother getting overwhelmed by many of the small four legged demons. There was no way he could turn in time to aid him while he was facing his own batch of enemies and the distance was far too great for him to turn and just simply bash his shield into their flimsy skulls.

Red plasma originated from his back scoring hits on the small four leggers killing some instantly and distracting others. This gave his brother the window of opportunity that he needed. He glanced at the golden visor of the demon seeing no indication of the Demon's emotions. The Demon fired again this time directly in front of him killing a Hellknight that had tried to kill the distracted Hunter. Plasma to the face and spine breaking blow from the Hunter's shield quickly ended the Hellknight's life.

"Thanks." the Hunter said.

"Say that to me after we get out of here." 267 said concentrating on killing as many Demons as possible.

666

"They come." said a Dark Imp with a spear in its' three fingered hand. This Imp looked out onto the slaughter with yearning. He wanted the human to come he wanted to make him pay for his sin.

The Imp stared at Betruger's new form. The left side of Betruger's face had been replaced with a scope. On his left shoulder was a large mounted cannon. It was connected to the ocular scope. His wings had fully formed. They weren't very big with only a 10 foot wingspan. His hands were still alit with flame. His legs were now like that of a goats.

"You want his blood?" Betruger asked paying only a little attention to the battle before him.

"He deserves to die…after what he did to my home world…to my people…" the Imp trailed off going back to its' days when it was mortal.

"Are you sure you can face him?" Betruger asked giving the Imp his full attention.

"You wound me…" the Imp said in a mocked tone "The other lesser Spartans have died and their bodies committed to our cause. They may not have the same brilliance has they once had but they will still be deadly." the Imp gestured to three Spartan III's standing behind him.

"He may not be a Spartan II but he is an Alpha class…"

"You sound unsure of yourself. The Antilife Lord is with us and will be their when we fight them. I will kill him and the Navi will have their revenge on the Spartan's head."

"I hope you know what your dealing with, because I do." Betruger glancing back at the fight below. The invading group had nearly made it to the doors. "We should go up the Lord will be waiting for us."

666

The field before the tower was littered with corpses and body parts. Only six were still standing…the other was 'mounted' on a Hunter. All seven of them came before the dark gates of the Tower. As Zuka gazed up at the foreboding structure he had to admit their was some sort of elegant beauty to it. He had finally been forced to abandon his Plasma Rifle's after he had fully exhausted the battery. Only Fusa, the Spartan, and the two Hunters had anything left in the way of ranged weaponry.

"How you faring Spartan?" Zuka asked with a glance as both Hunters joined the Elites at the massive doors.

"You try riding a Hunter into battle and see how it feels." the Spartan said not in his usually smartass tone of voice.

"Try being trained by two of them." Zuka returned bring back memories of his home.

The Spartan looked at him quizzically over the Hunter's shoulder before turning his attention on the gate.

"So do we knock?" the Spartan asked.

"We could try sneaking in." Fusa offered with not much conviction in his voice.

"I think we already lost the element of surprise." Juko said glancing over his shoulder at one of still twitching demon bodies. He was eyeing it daring it to get up.

" Or we could make our own door." Fudo said turning his attention to the two Hunters.

Both Hunters nodded their heads in unison. The Elites tensed as the whine of the tell tale charge of the building power in the Fuel Rod Cannons grew. The Spartan loosened his grip on the blue plated Hunter so he could ride with the recoil of the shot.

"Brothers prepare your selves."

The Hunters respective weapons went off. The blue Hunter's green stream alongside the golden plated Hunter's fuel rod bursts. Wood and stone was sent flying apart as a rather large hole appeared in the door. It was wide enough for a Hunter to enter in single file.

"Ladies first." Fusa said to the Spartan and the Hunter.

"Careful this one has the bigger gun." the Spartan said as the Hunter turned toward Fusa. The Hunter gave an irritated snort before heading off to the door.

666

The Spartan's Hunter was in first followed by the other Hunter and then the Elites. As they entered they formed a semicircle, covering all angles of possible attack. The Spartan and the Hunters were in the middle. Fudo and Fusa covered the left side while Zuka and Juko covered the right side. From what little light was available it was hard to make out the apparent structure of the Tower. The light only touched the first step of a stairway that went up in a single helix.

"Think it goes all the way to the top?" Juko asked.

"Only one way to find out." 267 responded.

"Juko your in the front. Hunters in the middle, Fusa on the side closets to the wall, I'll cover the opposite side, and Zuka your in the rear." Fudo said doing what he was meant to do as Special Operations Commander of the Covenant.

They began to ascend the stairs in the near pitch darkness.

666

Ascending the spiral stair case was surprisingly a delicate matter. The stairs were even but the gaits of the two species walking were different. The Hunters walked to fast or too slow to match the Elites and the Elites had to compensate to remain in an effective formation. The only sound was footsteps and breathing. Everything else was quiet.

As they neared the top of the tower the red light of the hellish sky began to filter down through the only exit at the top of the tower. It was large slit meant for something very wide to enter and exit it as it pleased. Now it waited. It had been a long time since it had been challenged. Its' only hope was that it would not be disappointed.

Zuka was the first to make his appearance followed by the Hunters, with Spartan on board, Fudo, Fusa, and Juko. Mortal eyed demon and demon eyed mortal. A large flame dominated the center of the tower.

"This is where I get off." 267 said with a firmness that meant he would not mount the Hunter again even if Fudo threw him back on.

Across from the mortals were the demons in the center of the tower. The Demons stood around the center of a massive flame. Betruger stood directly before the flames his optical eye solely centered upon the Spartan. On Betruger's left side was his flying mount. There was no better description for this thing other than a dragon. It was a hideous thing. Small horns exited from its eyeless head, black leathery wings were curled up and tensed ready to take flight. The tail of this beast ended like a club with barbs on it meant for catching and ripping flesh.

The Imp that the Spartan had fought earlier stood ready with three Zombie Spartans behind him. 267 eyed that with a damn near uncontrollable anger. It was a damn miracle that he didn't cross the expanse between them and start ripping Betruger and the Imp apart.

"Where is Hell's mightiest warrior?" Zuka said readying himself for whatever came next.

Betruger and his allies moved and the massive flames parted. Upon a black throne sat a massive being. A cross between armor and flesh covered the entire being. Its' massive bull horned head rested upon its left arm, the only arm that it had. The right arm was massive cannon that looked like it belonged on a tank. It eyed them all with some level of respect. They had made it this far, hopefully they had enough fight left to make this a challenge.

Zuka brought out the Soul Cube and eyed his opponent. The massive demon's eyes switched from Zuka to Betruger and narrowed, before returning back to Zuka.

"Betruger and the others are mine." 267 said as he walked away from the group. This was his business and the others had no part in it.

"The large one is my opponent." Zuka said.

"No brother, he is ours." Fudo corrected stepping up beside Zuka. Fusa and Juko joined him.

"Looks like we get leftovers." the blue plated Hunter said as it faced the dragon looking thing.

"I'm glad you made it this far Spartan. You don't know how long I've waited to kill you." the Imp said.

"A few hours?" 267 responded he may have been pissed off to no end but that didn't mean it wouldn't stop him from running his mouth.

"No. Ever since you ordered the destruction of Pandora!" the Imp roared pointing a finger at him.

267's rage at that moment was almost nullified by the shock that ran through his body. "No."

"Yes." the Imp hissed in triumph upon the Spartan's revelation.

"Tell me, before I kill you, what did you feel as you destroyed our planet?"

The Spartan was quiet thinking of his sin that he had committed. It was true; he was the one that pushed the button on the Nova bomb that destroyed Pandora, along with a Covenant invasion fleet.

"Anger, sadness, and a deep regret. All for cold undeniable logic, billions vs. hundreds of billions. It was you or us. That was the toughest decision I ever made. I pushed the button and billions of lives were ended in that action. If I hadn't the Covenant had gotten their hands on that rock humanity would die. My soul is stained with that blood…and I accept that. If I had the ability to go back to that very moment…"

The former soul of the Navi now turned Imp stared at him with great intent waiting for him to finish his thought. Betruger did nothing, he knew what the Spartan was going to say already but he wanted to kill the Spartan on his terms. As far as Betruger was concerned the Imp and the Zombie Spartans could potentially weaken the Spartan but would not be able to kill him.

"I would not have changed a thing." 267 said finally his voice firm and resolute.

The Imp's face contorted in rage. Snarling in fury he screamed at the Spartan "Once I am done with you I will kill the other three!"

"Conquest, Plague, and Death are all formidable…but I'm the best at close range combat."

Roaring in fury the Imp vanished in an orange lightning. The Zombie Spartans charged their movements were as fluid as when they were alive…and still had their souls'. 267 roared his own battle cry and charged. He had the Maulers but in this fight he was not going to use that advantage because he didn't need it. He had his hands and that would be enough.

Zuka stared at the monster before him in awe and anger. This was a opponent worthy of respect, but he would die like all the rest. His eyes went to his brothers that stood around him.

"For the honor of Shanghelios!" Zuka roared.

"For the honor of Shanghelios!" was the returned call of his brothers.

The Lord of Antilife smiled a cruel grin and cocked his massive cannon. Stomping forward he knew that he was going to enjoy this.

The Hunters wasted no moment with talk the fired the instant they got clear of their comrades. The flying beast took to the sky the Hunters' shot missing completely. They fired again and again into the air trying to bring the creature down. Its' bulk belied how nimble it truly was though. It weaved through the air and returned with its' own fire. Hell flamed fire balls were exchanged with deadly green plasma. This was a fight that whittled down to accuracy, reflex, and endurance.

The Golden Hunter made a mistake and it had cost him. He had avoided two fire balls, but it was the third the one that he had thought that was going to land to his left that caught him full in the chest. The Hunter flew back under the force, but it didn't kill him. Seeing an opportunity the beast flew down and made strafing run of flame. The Hunter never had a chance to dodge. Orange hellfire bathed the golden Hunter. Screaming in fury at the dragon he charged his cannon and fired. The strafing run had also cost the dragon airspace and reduced the chance of maneuverability.

The Hunter's shot hid dead on obliterating the membrane of the left wing. This brought the creature down to a skidding halt. It rose and roared it was beaten but far from done. Both charged at each other. In its' blind rage the Hunter had forgotten a key thing, the dragon had a much larger mass. Crooked razor sharp teeth chomped down on the Hunter's armor. The demon began to shake its' head back and forth like a dog with a rat in it's' mouth.

The demon tossed the Hunter aside. Pain racked the multiple worms of the Hunter's body as it tumbled toward the edge of the Tower. Luckily for the Hunter it skidded to a halt before the ledge. All the Hunter could do was muster enough strength to see death coming for him. The dragon stalked toward him with much speed it could muster on its' weakened limb.

It raised its massive maw upon the weakened Hunter ready for the kill. This was a kill that it would not have. Running at full speed the Golden Hunter slammed its left shoulder into the wounded side of the dragon. The arm that held the cannon had been burned off. The Hunter's razor sharp spine tore into the sides of the dragon. A cry of pain escaped the creature's maw as pain ripped its body. The Golden Hunter was not done yet. Using his momentum he continued to push the demonic dragon to the edge.

Sensing the danger the monster tried to use its' claws to grab some sort of purchase, but the grooved floor was slick with the blood of multiple sacrifices. The dragon tipped over the edge. It gave one final shriek as it fell off. Walking to the edge the Golden Hunter stared at the falling beast as it vainly tried too fly. Even way up on the tower the Hunter could feel the tremor of the beast as it hit the ground.

Turning around the Hunter headed back to his brother who was trying to rise to greet him. Cocking his head to the other fights he saw that they were not needed for the moment. That was fine by him they needed the rest, and when it was time they would strike.

267 blocked and deflected the punch directed at his head by the Zombie Spartan before and then promptly ducked to avoid a roundhouse kick directed to his head from the Zombie Spartan behind him. He then responded with a counter strike to the helmet of the opponent before him, then turned around and kicked the Spartan behind him who was still in the rotation of the roundhouse kick. The kick was for offensive as well as an evasive purpose. The third Zombie Spartan was coming at him from the left side intending to try and catch him off guard. Had they been facing a lesser opponent the set up might have worked. With his right hand 267 caught the wrist of the attacker's punch and brought his left elbow on the fore arm of his undead enemy. His enhanced hearing heard something break. Kicking out with his foot he sent his stunned enemy sprawling followed by jerking his head back to avoid a thrust from the Imp that had teleported just a little bit above his head. The Imp hit the ground hissed and teleported away and the Zombie Spartans got back up ready for another round. This was how they had been fighting and IT was getting on his nerves. As much as he hated to admit it, this was wearing him down. He had been fighting almost nonstop for the past few hours and his movements were getting sluggish. Casting a side ways glance he saw that Betruger remained immobile. He stayed in exactly the same spot since the fight had begun. 267 could almost see the sliver of a smile on Betruger's rat bastard face.

One of the Zombies came straight at him. He had mentally forgotten which Spartan it was, it was easier to kill an opponent if you thought of it as less as a living thing that had a life. It was hard considering he had worked with these people for a few months since his transfer, and they were once Spartans...his brothers and sisters in arms. If he had been with him he might have been able to save them, though he had learned long ago to not contemplate on the had's and the ifs.

The stance was too open and almost begging to question the logic behind the reckless charge. Responding to the incoming fist he grabbed pulled and let the momentum of the charging zombie carry if forward and behind him. He now focused his attention on the two Zombie Spartans before him. They attacked simultaneously with punches and kicks. 267 was always on the defensive when he would block or dodge one strike from one opponent the other opponent would be lashing out with their own blows. He was instantly thankful that he was good at close quarters combat.

The tell tale buzz of the Imp's teleporting technique issued from behind him. 267 did the only thing that he could do; he disengaged the two opponents and did a pivot on his foot to avoid the predicted thrust of his opponent. Coming behind the Imp he kicked out at the back of the Imp shattering the armor. 267's intent was not to shatter the armor but send the Imp in sprawling tumble to entangle the other two Zombies.

267 was the best in close combat of his group not because he had faster reflexes, or enough strength to rip out an Elite spine, but he was able to analyze and predict the movements of his opponents. That may have been one of the reasons he had nearly beaten the Spartan III trainer Kurt in a game of chess.

267 ran for all that he was worth away from the three and at the almost recovered Zombie Spartan. Seeing him coming the Zombie raised its fists to attack. That was the one thing about Spartans they were trained to absolutely be on the attack and it appeared to be true even after death. This was what 267 was betting on. He grabbed the right wrist with his right hand and the Zombies head with his left hand. Flipping over the struggling zombie he responded with a kick with his left leg.

The Zombies neck separated in several places which were audible with wood snapping like cracks. Not only was the innovative attack lethal but had also broken several bones in the hand and arm. One down, three more to go before he could finally deal with Betruger.

The three got up and stared at him with hatred from the Imp and the glossed over eyes of the Zombie Spartans.

"So you are heartless." the Imp said as he glanced at the now finally dead Spartan III.

"When the body leaves the soul it's just a hunk of meat." 267 responded evenly.

The Imp disappeared and this time 267 knew that he was going to end this. He charged the Zombies that charged him. One Zombie flanked left and the other flanked right. As 267 charged he could feel a resurgence of adrenaline. This was it.

As he charged he could almost see time warp as it slowed and sped up at the same time. Spartan Time. Everything was seen with such clarity that it hurt his eyes. The Spartan Zombies crawled compared to him. He went for his Zombie on the right first.

He grabbed the Zombies right arm with his left hand and twisted nearly bring the arm to the breaking point. His right hand turned into a fist that went directly into the elbow. Anatomically the ball and socket joint dislocated, the tendons of the humerus connected to the radius and ulna making the elbow joint separated, and the carpal bones broke making use of the hand impossible. That one move made the entire right arm useless. Sliding under the arm while simultaneously holding on to it at the same time he prepared himself for his next strike. When his body was in place he lashed out with his left leg to the upper chest close to the right arm. The entire arm, armor included, separated off the main body of the Zombie Spartan. It fell backwards with the loss of arm to maintain its balance. The entire move lasted less than half a second.

Now it was onto the next one. Still holding on to the arm he threw the arm point blank at the other Zombies face. It hit the Zombie fist first. The mandible on the Zombie almost broke, and that wasn't even with 267 own fist. 267 was still under the effects of Spartan time. While the Zombie was still in the air 267 grabbed the back armor piece and in between the legs. He brought the Zombie's spine on his knee breaking the spine making the body entirely useless. This took three-fourths of a second. His adrenaline rush was beginning to ebb.

Still holding onto the body he brought it around to face the Imp that was going to strike him from behind. He pushed the body into the Imp's strike. The tip of the double pronged spear pierced through armor and flesh of the dead Spartan III"s armor. When the spear was about half way through 267 brought his hand down in a karate style chop, breaking the body of the spear. Taking his half he intended to shove it through the Imp's skull. He never even got to swing. The other Zombie came at him from the side barreling into him with its only good shoulder left. The arm ripping may have worked on a mortal opponent, but a zombie had no sense of pain and the only way to truly kill a zombie was to sever all connection from the brain to the body.

"_NO."_ 267 thought as the zombie brought him down.

He sprawled out with zombie on top. The zombie was able to hammer him twice with its' left arm before he retaliated. Bringing his head back he hit the chin of the zombie's armor causing the head of it to snap back. With his left elbow he forcefully hit it in the right ribs lifting the zombie off of him. He scrambled forward anxious to get back to this feet. On his feet 267 preformed a roundhouse kick to the face of the zombie that was half way off the ground. The body of the zombie fell with the head at an unnatural angle.

Whipping his head about 267 looked for the Imp. His hearing picked up the crunch of boots on the blood soaked floor. Turning he saw the Imp charging at him with both ignited parts of the spear in it's' hands. 267 kicked up his feet and ran straight at the Imp. They both rapidly closed the distance in between each other. This would be the final move for either one.

267 jumped up into the air and launched into a flying kick straight at the Imp. The Imp on its part had miscalculated the distance between them. 267's foot connected with the Imp. Surprise and pain lit up on the Imps face. 267's momentum was too great to be repulsed back by the brief contact with the Imp. Extending his arms to the limit he grabbed both of the Imps arms and flipped back to the Imps back. Hitting the ground the Imp was able to hold both himself and the Spartan on top of him up. 267 began to pull for all that he was worth, pressing his legs against the Imp's back. As his legs extended the Imps arms started to become more and more detached from their holdings. With a roar 267 was finally able to push off. The left arm had come off completely while the right arm had separated a little below the elbow. 267 dove into a roll and came up holding the effort of his grisly test of strength. Tossing both pieces of arms aside he walked toward the face down Imp. Nudging it with his foot he flipped the Imp onto its back. The Imps breathing was deep, rapid, and slowing.

267 kneeled down to his dying opponent and whispered three words. "I'm so sorry." He set his left hand on top of the skull and his right hand on the chin. Twisting the head of the Imp brought it a swift death. Rising up 267 stared down Betruger who was smiling fiercely.

"Not bad, not bad. From the reports I had on you I would have expected you to rip out his spine." Betruger said.

"I was saving that agony for you." he responded with anger creeping into the edge of his voice.

"Well then…" Betruger said flexing his wings.

"Lets get this over with."

Betruger immediately took to the sky. The first thing he began to do was shoot at him with the cannon strapped to his shoulder. He fired spears down onto the Spartan. 267 expertly avoided the shots that were directed close to him.

267 gave Betruger a questioning look. The shots were fired in almost a random pattern. Betruger mouthed the word "Boom". Finally getting the idea behind the attack 267 glanced at the spears around him and saw that they were flashing dangerously. Turning he bolted out of the area. The resulting explosion lifted him off his feet and through him onto the ground hard.

Nausea rolled over him, his vision was blurred, pain racked the left side of his body, and he could taste blood in his mouth. He laid on his back watching as a burning speck dove down towards him. Acting more on instinct than thought he rolled out of the way as Betruger pounded into the ground. The blood slick grooved stone floor splintered and exploded.

267 hadn't quite recovered his vision but at this range he just needed to lash out and he would hit something. He kicked, punched, and did anything to cause Betruger bodily harm. His hearing heard something break. As he fought his vision recovered and not a moment to late. The burning speck he had seen earlier were Betruger's burning fists. Lashing out with one of his fists the demonized Betruger landed a blow on 267's right side. The hit lifted the Spartan off his feet and sent him flying for the second time that day. He landed on his back and rolled backward flipping through the air. Using the reducing momentum he landed on his feet and skidded the rest of the way back. His entire body hurt but he fought through the pain. He had to focus his mind on the fight.

Betruger wiped blood off his bruised chin. He had managed to land a blow in Betruger's smug face. This brought a small grin to him, at least he had finally been able to wipe that smug smile of his face.

Betruger once again took to the air. The exploding spears began to rain down and this time they exploded on impact. 267 weaved in and out of the explosions. His body had taken a tremendous beating and it was costing him. He was slower and getting slower.

Betruger fired two more spears. Both shots intercepted right before the Spartan. The explosions went off and bathed the Spartan in fire. Smoke issued from the gaping holes. Nothing moved. Betruger gave a triumphant cackle. The smoke parted and the Spartan rose on what appeared to be silver blue wings.

Betruger cut off his cackle in surprise.

"Yeah bitch I can fly too!" Spartan said with anger.

267 hit Betruger right between the legs. Betruger momentarily went cross eyed. His jaw hung open in pain and shock. Flipping and adding centripetal force to his next blow. With a double handed fist he hit the back of Betruger's skull. Ungracefully Betruger fell out of the sky, the Spartan not far behind. Betruger hit the ground first. The Spartan brought his entire body down on the left wing. Membrane split open and bone snapped. Betuger let out a howl of pain and responded by having his gun face the Spartan at point blank range. 267grabbed the barrel of the weapon and ripped it off. The weapon had been molded into Betruger's flesh and blood squirted out of the wound. Fury flooded Betruger veins, numbing the pain through out his body. If he had been trained like War, or Jordan Gamma-267 of the Four Horsemen, he might have been able to focus his rage into an actual useable advantage.

Betruger lashed out and grabbed the helmet of 267. 267 had been expecting this and raised his hands to his helmet hitting the release. If 267's head had still been in the helmet it would have melted in three seconds flat. With all the strength he could muster the Spartan hit Betruber point blank in the sternum. Bones fragmented and cracked. Small microscopic pieces severed veins and arteries leading to the heart. Larger pieces of the broken rib bones punctured the lungs.

Betruger stared into the cold angry and triumphant blue eyes of the Spartan. He fell down to his hands and knees in shock.

"_Finish him."_ the dark voice said in his mind and the Spartan was all too happy to comply.

267 walked to the left side of the dying Betruger. His right hand grasped the back

of Betruger's head firmly.

"This is not the end." Betruger gasped.

He raised he left hand in the over the spine of his soon to be dead foe.

"Hell will be free and humanity will fall. **ALL OF THE CREATORS CREATIONS SHALL BE CONSUMED BY DARKNESS! THIS FATE IS INEVITABLE!**"

"Not while I still breathe, and besides I don't believe in fate."

Flesh parted from the spine as 267 drove his fingers in Betruger's back. A terrible scream escaped Betruger's lips and another after 267's grip tightened. Wrenching forward 267 began to tear out the spine. A hair line seam split Betruger's throat, spilling blood. With another good yank 267 completely pulled out the spine. The rest of Betruger's body turned into a blood fountain. Without messages being sent to the rest of the body it collapsed.

Staring at the fruit of his labor 267 wondered whether to or not to crush the head. Betruger's eyes looked dead on into his. The mouth gaped open and close trying to speak. He dropped the head and spine turning his attention to the huge form of Antilife. Antilife was the one truly responsible for everything that had happened. Picking up his helmet 267 sealed it back onto his head. Now he was ready to finish this fight.

Zuka moved in a zigzag pattern avoiding the shots of Antilife's cannon, while simultaneously separating himself from the rest of the charging Elites. Antilife seemed completely concentrated on killing him. The CA-CHINK of the weapons reload foretold when the massive behemoth was about ready to fire its cannon. Avoiding the fire became more and more difficult as he got closer. The ragging inferno of eyes tracked him with a focused intent with murder and mayhem on the agenda. With quicker reflexes than what he thought the large demon was capable of it had altered the barrel of its cannon changing the flight of the next shell. An explosion of fire and shrapnel occurred before Zuka sending him flying. When he landed he was flat on his back. His vision focused and unfocused as he tried to recover.

Shockwaves of the rumbling earth told him that the demon was coming his way.

"_Move, move, move!"_ he mentally yelled at his body but it remained unresponsive.

The large twin horns appeared first before the demon towered over him. He could see a fierce snarl over its yellow, crooked, jagged teeth.

"**I EXPECTED MORE."** it said with to exaggerated swagger.

"It's called a set up." the Elite struggled to say.

The demon stared down at the Elite with a mirthless grin. It spoke in a low tone, barely a whisper. **"ONLY WIELDER OF THE SOUL CUBE CAN KILL ME. AND THAT WIELDER IS ABOUT TO DIE."**

Antilife raised its' hoofed foot to crush Zuka. Roars grabbed the attention of Antilife as all three Elites charged him. Juko charged straight at the demon with both of his plasma blades ignited. Both blades impaled the abs of Antilife. Fudo jumped on Antilife's back and began to stab repeatedly. Fusa stabbed through the left thigh intending to throw the demon off balance, under its own weight.

Antilife roared with laughter. With his free hand Antilife grabbed Juko and tossed him aside. Fusa was kicked back from a brief shake of Antilife's leg. Fudo jumped back avoiding a swing from the cannon. Blood had been spilled but immediately the wounds began to heal.

"**NOW DO YOU SEE HOW POINTLESS THIS FIGHT IS?"** Antilife said still chuckling.

He looked down to see that the Elite he had been trying to belittle had disappeared. Pain erupted in his knee as he felt the multiple blades of the Soul Cube tear into him. Looking down he saw Zuka back flipping out of out of his arms reach.

"Yet I am the one to draw first blood." Zuka said smirking.

This wound did not heal and blood continued to seep out of the gaping hole. Antilfe snorted in fury. Raising the barrel of his gun he fired straight at Zuka, but Zuka was able to roll out of the blast radius of the shot.

The other Elites would rush in and grab the attention of Antilife allowing Zuka to land a blow. This plan was working but none of the wound were life threatening. Any wounds inflicted by the plasma swords healed over quickly and Zuka was not tall enough, even when jumping to hit any true vital organs. Zuka could try and throw the Soul Cube at the large demon but this presented several problems. Problem one if he did throw the Soul Cube he would be left with only his sword. Problem two if he would throw the Soul Cube he would have to go and recover meaning he would be giving Antilife a target for his destination.

Juko roared raising the warrior fury in his blood. Antilife turned toward him and smacked him with side of his cannon. Pain racked his entire body as he landed. All of his senses were gone. One moment he felt like he was standing the next he felt like he was falling. After gaining some sense of semi balance he rolled off his back. On all fours he began to throw up purple colored chunks.

"There's…my break" he puked one more time "fast."

Standing on his feet he realized that he had lost both of his swords. Shaking his head he began to look for them. That's when he realized that Antilife was directly above him. He could hear his comrades screaming at him to run but he was too stunned to even move. Antilife brought his hoof down on top of Juko. Annoyance had driven Antilife to come after Juko, he figured if he killed off more of the insects then he could focus all of his attention on the Soul Cube's chosen.

A dust cloud erupted covering everything below Antilife's legs. Fusa's next breath was caught in his throat. He couldn't believe it. His strong, honor bound, hot blooded, and in his opinion an idiot sometimes, was finally dead.

Fudo stared horrified and at a loss. He had suffered losses of very valued comrades but he never thought Juko would die. Juko was one of those guys that seemed capable of surviving anything.

Zuka didn't stop running. He charged with pure fury at Antilife. Whether he lived or died no longer mattered as long as the ugly son of a bitch died.

"A little help here? Anyone?" Juko called from under Antlife's hoof.

Zuka tripped and fell flat on his face in surprise. Raising his head he saw Juko holding up most of Antilife's body.

"Brothers hurry!" Fudo roared sprinting past Zuka and Fusa.

Even with his multi jointed legs making him extremely fast Fudo knew he would not be able to reach his brother in time to save him from being totally crushed under Antilfe's foot.

"I don't know what worse being slowly crushed to death, or being slowly crushed death while standing in a puddle of your own puke." Juko muttered through gasps.

Antilife had thought all of his foes were before him that he didn't notice that all of his other champions had fallen. The General of all DOOM forces was going to pay for his arrogance. Small annoying stabs slowly made his was up his back. The Spartan was using both Maulers to climb Antilife's back. Upon reaching the top of Antilife's the Spartan threw himself bodily over the demon's head. He fired all five rounds in each Mauler along the neck and the head. At the height of his parabolic path he tossed both Maulers. One hit Antilife in the neck and the other gouged it in the eye. Next he drew one of Juko's Plasma Swords and threw it as he twisted in the air directly to Antilife's cannon. The shell loaded in the barrel sparked and exploded. The gun fell off Antilife's arm reducing his shooting arm to a stump. 267 was far from done as he hooked both hands around the left horn. With his firm purchase on the horn he altered his momentum. Tendons connected to the horn ripped, allowing the Spartan to flip into the air. While this was happening the Blue Hunter rammed its entire bulk into Antilife's other leg, unbalancing the demon and causing it to fall on its back.

Juko sprang out as his muscles unwound and the downward pressure was relieved. Taking a deep breath Juko recovered from his near death experience. When he opened his eyes he saw the glowing hilt of one of his blades not very far away.

Antilife couldn't believe it. These insects had actually managed to bring him down. That human had even ripped off one of his horns. When he got up that bastard would pay. Little did Antilife know he would not get up…ever again. With horn still in hand the Spartan slammed with all the force in his arms into the sharp horn which plunged into Antilife's neck as he landed on the upper chest of the great demon. The great demon stared in surprise at this little insect that had taken one of his glorious horns and pierced him with it. Taking Juko's other blade off his belt the Spartan planned on testing how good Antilife's healing factor was.

"Let's see if you can grow another head!"

Before the Spartan could strike Antilife's massive hand had grabbed the entire arm of the Spartan. Only his right hand and the Plasma blade it held was out of Antilife's grasp, but the Spartan could not alter the blade enough to cut into any of the fingers. Antilife's grasp intensified on the arm as he prepared to throw. The Spartan's supposedly unbreakable bones shattered in several places. For once a scream of pain came out from under the Spartan's helmet. Flicking his hand the Spartan was sent skipping across the floor of the tower. When the Spartan came to a halt his body had just about cleared the lip of the portal that lead to the staircase. The Spartan was not dead, but he didn't get back up.

Fudo, Juko, and Fusa jumped on Antilife and tore into him like wolves into a moose. Which was rather ironic considering Juko actually used his teeth along with his sword. The Blue Hunter body slammed Antilife's entire arm keeping him pinned. Still with out an arm but pissed as hell the Golden Hunter bellowed as it ran at the down demon. With all the strength it could muster into its' shield arm the Hunter shoved its shield in between Antilife's legs. The only comparison for this was a sledge hammer with a spike being shoved into the male humans lower anatomy. If the horn lodged into Antilife's throat wasn't there it would have screamed. Finally it was Zuka's turn. With the Soul Cube's blades spinning just hairs breath from cutting into his own flesh Zuka gave roar as he plunged into the face of the demon. The blades worked their way up from the lower chin to the mouth and finally into the brain. Blood, bone, and brain matter sprayed in every direction. Zuka's four mandible's were stretched in a fierce grin.

Whatever remained of Antilife's head fell backwards. The tense body twitched violently before relaxing. The Golden Hunter placed its' leg against the thigh of the beheaded demon and pulled out its' shield, all of it was covered in blood, gore, and fecal matter. All of the Elites jumped or stumbled off the corpse as it began to reduce itself to ashes.

"You got some blood here." Fusa said motioning his finger around his entire face.

Juko spat out some blood and grunted. "Could use some salt."

Zuka watched as the demon's body fell to ashes. The legs and the arms were the first to 'decompose'. The chest was second to fall to the rot. Finally the head was claimed. With a clang the remaining horn fell to the ground. Walking to the fallen horn Zuka picked it up and examined it.

"That would be a most worthy trophy." Fudo said standing to the kneeling Zuka.

"_Do not take it not yet."_ The Soul Cube spoke as it rose from Zuka's side.

"_Even though Antilife is dead his taint is still present. Let me rectify this and you may take both horns."_ the Soul Cube spoke. It's ports opened and began to swirl rapidly. A red mist seeped out of the black horns and into the cube. In seconds the red mist faded and the horns were still the same but seemed to reek less of evil.

Rising to his full height Zuka stared at the horn. It was indeed a worthy trophy from a worthy opponent.

"This is our trophy, and that one is his." Zuka said with his head in the direction of the horn that had pierced Antilife's throat.

"If only the gods did not want them dead…." said Fudo staring at the fallen Spartan with a mixture of hate, respect, and admiration. "Does honor demand it?"

"My honor demands it, but what does your heart say?" Zuka asked.

"Yes, my heart says yes."

"So are we taking him with us then?" Fusa asked.

"Yes." Fudo said blankly.

"Maybe we should make him mount one of the Hunters?" Fusa said jokingly.

666

267 opened his eyes as a terrible jolt awoke from his pain induced unconsciousness. When he tilted his head he saw that it was Fusa that was carrying him. Fusa in turn tilted his head to stare into the Spartan's face plate.

"I make one joke and I get stuck carrying your heavy ass." Juko said turning his head toward their destination which was the portal, which they hoped was still there.

"At least my ass is better looking than your face."

"Beauty is an opinion."

"And in the opinion of the universe my ass is better looking than your face."

Fusa violently rolled his shoulders causing pain to erupt up 267's right arm.

"You did that on purpose." 267 said through clenched teeth.

"The opinion of the universe was that you deserved it.'

"Be quiet!" Fudo hissed "Just because we killed most of the demons doesn't mean that there are more around here."

"But he started it." Fusa hissed back.

"I don't care who started it I'll end it." Fudo said ending the discussion.

"Geez, what an ass." 267 whispered quietly too Fusa.

"Tell me about it."

666

Little did they know that the group was being watched, but not by demons. Four very powerful beings watched them. They sat on magnificent, but terrible horses. Each was one was powerful and had centuries of battles under their belts. These warriors stood close to nine feet tall.

Starting from the left the first one sat on a white horse with yellow eyes. This one had two pistols holstered on its' thighs. The rider whore a mask, that covered everything except the golden eyes. Dark raven hair was the only other distinguishable feature.

The next was a sat upon a black horse that had man of fire. A large blade with faces of woe and terror carved into the blade was placed on the back of the red hooded rider. White eyes that had seen so many atrocities, some of which were caused by his own hands. One arm was far larger than the other, but the warrior had fought so many years that he wasn't unbalanced by it in the slightest.

From head to toe the next rider's appearance screamed one word. Death. This one wore a mask just like a first one but this one had no features. Just two sockets for the eyes and one for the nose. Long black hair wound its way down to the back of a massive scythe was held in the right hand of this ancient being. One major difference that set this rider apart from the others was that it had no armor on its chest. If one was near invulnerable what was the point of wearing armor?

The final one was not male, but female. Red long hair that had been lavished by a comb for many centuries this woman also gifted with a very attractive body. If she tried she could probably take any mans heart. Two hilts of her inactivated weapon rest upon both of her thighs.

"So which one are we taking to join again?" the first one on the left asked.

"The black armored one that used the Soul Cube. If you would pay attention Strife you would know this." spoke the female.

"Well excuse me Fury if three of them all have black armor." Strife responded hotly.

"Only one carries the Soul Cube." Fury replied coolly.

"So one of them does." Strife replied after taking a look at the small group that was still a few miles off.

"And they say you have hawk eyes." Fury said with a small laugh.

"What was that sister?" Strife snapped.

Fury was about to answer before the third rider cut him off. "How many in their group?"

Strife stared at his brother with confusion. The eldest of the three was by far the most powerful, he should be able to see as far as he could from this distance. Although only he could probably kill them from this distance with his guns.

Turning back to the small group that was heading to the portal he counted their heads and regarded how much of a threat they were.

"Two Hunters, one gold and the other blue. Both have sustained heavy wounds rank from two to three on threat factor of ten. Four Elites, one Spec Ops Commander and three Spec Ops. I rank them three to five together on threat level."

"And the Spartan?" Death asked.

"What about him? He's not a Spartan II, one of his arms is broken or nearly broken, and he's so doped on pain that he can't even walk. Ranking him even as a one would be a stretch."

"You saw what he did to those demons right?" Fury asked,

"Yeah, but if it was me I would have ripped the spine out the guy's ass."

Death just shook his head before turning to stare at the second rider, and the youngest of the group. "His call sign is named after you, does that mean anything to you War?"

The white eyed rider was quiet. His eyes were drilling in deep to the back of the Spartan's head. "No. Let's get Zuka and get his over with."

Death just nodded his head, somewhat disappointed in both of his brothers' assessment of the Spartan. That young warrior had so much potential. Raising his Scythe in the air the group was set into motion.

666

The slow trudging group never heard the galloping of the horses behind them. They didn't have enough time to react, and the first indication that they were under attack was when a very large armored being slammed its giant fist into the Hunters' knocking them down. Zuka went for his blades but a purple colored energy surrounded him and immobilized him completely. Juko fell face forward as a heavy boot kicked him in the back. The heavy boot prevented Juko from rising. Fudo and Fusa were rendered immobile when the being on top of Juko put a quadruple barreled gun to the sides of their heads'.

"Zuka is coming with us." an Amazon sized lady said. The purple energy radiated from her.

"You'll let him go if you don't want your friend here to die." 267 said.

He was not as weak as Strife had believed as he stared down the barrel of a Mauler. Strife's power was great but even he couldn't stand being shot in the head.

"How?" Strife asked in surprise.

The Spartan ignored the question and directed his attention. "Do you mind letting go of Zuka, big tits?" Hell he was in control of the situation so why not go for broke.

The woman gave a slight smirk and the energy around Zuka began to abate.

"Your stalling. Let Zuka go or this guy loses his brains." the Spartan said his voice losing all of the polite flattery. For emphasis the Spartan shoved the barrel closer to Strife's eye.

The woman lost her smirk and the binding energy evaporated. The Spartan smiled in triumph, though it was quickly lost though as gauntleted hand began to apply a light pressure to his elbow. Normally he could stand it with no problem, but the fact that his arm was broken it felt like someone injected melted tar into his veins. He turned his head slightly so that he could see who the hell was causing him the pain while still keep an eye on his hostage. This being before him was intimidating, even for a Spartan. The lack of a facial features made it hard to concentrate on. 267's hand holding the Mauler began to shake as the pain intensified.

"Wisdom is a great gift…" Death spoke to Strife before staring the Spartan. "Remember well!"

Death raised his right hand to the Spartan's face and the Spartan fell limp into unconsciousness. The binding energy surrounded Zuka once more. The dark rider pointed his hand at Zuka.

"Wait…give the Spartan both of my blades." Zuka struggled to speak.

Death said nothing but took both blades off of Zuka. Finishing his incantation Death caused Zuka to fall into unconsciousness. The red hooded being draped Zuka over his shoulder as the group began to disassemble.

A massive doorway erupted out of the earth, large enough for the nine foot tall beings. War went in first with the unconscious Elite. The woman followed in after at Death's command. She gave one last glance at the unconscious Spartan before disappearing. Strife got his boot off Juko but kept his guns pointed at his enemies. When Strife neared Death's side he spoke.

"Strife go. I will take care of this."

"You sure about that?" Strife keeping his guns levled.

"Go." Death said with a flat tone.

Strife nodded his head and turned around. He knew better than to mess with Death when he had taken that tone of voice. Soon strife disappeared into the massive doorway.

Death raised his right hand and everyone tensed. A green light flashed from his hand and a green glowing pentagram appeared in the scarred earth.

"This portal will take you back to the facility." Death spoke his green eyes never leaving the Spartan.

Death turned to leave, his duty done.

"Wait!" Juko called.

Death turned to the lone Elite that approached him. Juko approached the massive being with no trace of fear. He had the massive horn of Antilife in his hands.

"Give this to Zuka." Juko commanded rather than asked.

"Give these to the Spartan." Death said handing over both Plasma Blades.

Death only nodded and took it in his left hand. This time Death turned to leave but paused once more before the doorway.

"Tell the Spartan to remember my face. For we shall meet again."

Then Death walked through the doorway and disappeared along with the doorway.

Every member in the group looked from one to the other utterly perplexed at what had just happened. Fudo sighted softly and ordered them to enter the portal. The group left with only one member of the group missing.

666

Epilogue

When the Spartan came too they were back in the facility walking down the dank and dreary hallways. He could see the hulking forms of the Hunters' ahead of him as well as two Elites, a third one was carrying him. He turned his head around hoping to see Zuka. Nothing was behind him.

"Damn it." he cursed under his breath.

"Finally awake." Fusa grunted without much enthusiasm.

"You can put me down now." 267 responded. The pain had abated to a tolerable level.

Fusa kneeled and the Spartan got off and finally stood on his own two feet. Fudo, Juko, and the Hunters' all paused to see the Spartan stand. They could kill him now, for there was no longer a common enemy. None of them attacked though, they were tired from fighting for one day, and the Spartan had earned some level of comradeship among the group.

"Come on let's go top side and leave this accursed place." Fudo said saying it more as an order than a suggestion.

"No, not yet. I have to retrieve Ave…something to enable the self destruction of the base."

"I don't think the demons will be coming back." Fusa said.

"True, but I have to make sure…we can't let any sacrifices be in vain."

Fudo was quiet analyzing the Spartan over trying to figure out if there was a hidden motive for this. Finally he came to a conclusion.

"Hurry Dem…Spartan. We shall leave one of the Specture's behind for you."

"Thanks…I may hate you for what your race has done to mine, but I thank you for fighting alongside me." 267 said holding out his left uninjured hand.

Fudo shook the hand gently. He may not know how much pain the Spartan was in, but he guessed that he was still hurting. Fusa came next and shook the uninjured hand just as softly.

"Good luck." was all that Fusa said before turning away and heading for the Covenant base.

Juko came up next. He looked the most crestfallen of them all. "Zuka wanted you to have these." Juko said handing over both Plasma Blades. "That thing that took Zuka wanted us to tell you that it wanted you to remember its face for it shall meet you again.

267 felt a lump form in his throat. He willingly accepted both Plasma Blades and made sure that were securely strapped into his belt. Then Juko handed over Antilife's horn.

"Another one for the wall I guess." 267 said his voice barely a whisper but still audible to Juko.

Juko said nothing but watched as the Spartan used the purple string used by the Covenant to secure it to his armor. Then Juko took the Spartan's hand and shook, but also put a hand on the Spartan's shoulder.

"May your battles bring you glory and may your skills be sharp." Juko said in his own way of a goodbye.

"You too." was all that he was able to respond.

Juko turned and followed Fusa. Then came both Hunters'. They both individually gingerly set their shields on the Spartan's shoulder. While as light as the tough was it caused him a great deal of pain that he was able to choke down. After a brief nod of respect they turned and left. Fudo gave one last glance before following after. 267 watched them leave before turning back in the other direction.

666

All the Spartan concentrated on doing was getting to his destination. Each step sent some pain up his body but the focus on his goal made it easy to ignore the pain. After walking down many corridors, past many locked doors, and long elevator ride with annoying music he eventually reached the A.I. holding facility.

He noticed that the doors had been busted inwards. Not exactly a good sign. He could pull of the detonation manually, but after a day like today he was in no mood for dying. Putting his back to the wall he inched his body to the door frame. He peeked his head over the lip of the frame trying to see inside.

A bullet whizzed over his head. He brought his head back as soon as he had heard the bang.

"Aveon it's me Spartan 267!" he said with a little bit of a growl to his voice.

"Sorry." Aveon shouted.

267 rounded the corner again to see the six turrets relax and focus off of him. His boots stepped into ashes and muck that had once been demons.

"I see you had your hands full." 267 said.

"Nothing I couldn't handle." her green naked female Avatar said as he approached her pedestal.

267 looked Aveon over something seemed different about her. Her 'body' seemed to twitch and fade in and out of focus. First it would be green then fade to purple then back to green. He just wrote it off as malfunction in the holoprojector.

"So what happened?"

"After Zuka and I dropped out of contact with you we went into hell. Did you get the postcard while I was there?" he asked trying to put a comical spin on going to hell.

Aveon said nothing but had her hand on her hips in the traditional woman like pose that said if I don't get what I want you're going to regret it. Stopping before Aveon's holding center he decided to give the quick story and move on.

"We fought through hell, came back and hooked up with the rest of the Covenant forces. From there we went back into hell and killed anything that got in our way."

"And Betruger?"

"I ripped out his spine."

"Are you insane?" Aveon asked a little too casually.

"If you have to be a little insane to be a Spartan." he answered with a grin behind his helmet.

"What about Zuka?"

"He was taken from us…" 267 said with a bitter tone in his voice.

"Oh…" was all that Aveon said dropping the matter.

"Aveon I need you too start the self destruction of the base." 267 said quickly changing the topic of the conversation.

Aveon just nodded her head and accessed the proper protocols that she would need to begin the termination of the base. She set the timer for fifteen minutes.

"That should be enough time." she said pleasantly.

"Make it twenty." the Spartan's body was still in a lot of pain and he didn't want to risk further damage if he could avoid it.

Aveon increased the countdown on the timer and began the self destruct sequence. Stepping onto the pedestal he watched as a flat cylinder rose up from the center of the pedestal. This was Aveon's portable housing device. It was necessary for all smart A.I.s to have a way of transportation to get sensitive data out of a hot zone if termination would be considered to great a loss. There was a clamp as the magnetic clamps firmly attached themselves to this armor. Turning around the Spartan headed out the door.

666

Jack watched from the back of the Specture as the building that his parents had died in became their tomb. He had his knees up to his chest as he silently cried. He was able to keep down his sobs, but his tears were taken away by the wind and fell on the ground.

The ground underneath the black obsidian building crumbled as small explosions at structural weak points led into the cave in. Once the entire building had been submerged the reactor core reached critical mass and exploded. A small mushroom cloud of dust erupted from the ground. Every single piece of the facility had practically gathered on one spot making it easy to destroy anything that was still salvageable.

His parents were dead, and even his savior the one that had saved him from the demons was gone now. All that was left was dust, echoes, and memories of blood. Ishii was beside him and sighed in relief as he watched these sins of man washed away in flame and nuclear radiation. The Asian relaxed and put his head back in enjoying the first few moments of piece.

"Jack can you hear me?" it was the Spartan speaking over the radio.

"Yeah I can." Jack said when he finally found the ability to talk.

"I know this is really hard on you losing your parents and all…but I just wanted to tell you that you shouldn't lose the memory of them. Concentrate on the better times you had with them and you will turn out just fine."

Fury burned in Jack. How could this man understand his pain? How could he understand seeing both parents taken before him?

"How can you understand my pain? Did you watch your parents as they were slaughtered before you? Did you fell helplessness as you knew you could do nothing to save you? And betrayed when the one who saved abandoned you?"

"Yes…I watched my parents die as they were casually picked off and their carcasses thrown to ravenous grunts." The Spartan grew quiet as the memory he worked so hard to bury resurfaced. He may have forgotten the faces of his parents but it was the rage of the memory that had actually led him to complete his Spartan training and become as deadly as he was. "And Zuka lied. He did what he had to too protect you. The Covenant are at war to wipe you humanity out. If he took you with him you would die. To protect you he had to let you go."

"Really?" Jack asked with some hope in his voice.

"Yes really." the Spartan paused before speaking over the radio again. "I know this may be a lot asking from you right now, but if you want…no, if you have the will to. You can become a Spartan just like me and ensure that no other man, woman, or child has to suffer the fate of losing a loved one."

"Is that the reason why you fight?" Jack asked behind choked sobs.

The Spartan was quiet once more, confiding in his own mind. "It's one reason why I fight." he said answering truthfully.

Jack was about to answer before he was cut off by someone.

"This is ONI Section III. Spartan we see your commandeered vehicle proceed on the road that you are on for pick up. Over." said a hard voice devoid of emotion.

"Wilco. Over."

The roar of a human aircrafts was heard long before it was heard. Three Pelicans with a black paint job came into view as the topped the buildings. 267 killed the engine to the Specture and got out. Jack and Ishii got off as well and stood behind the Spartan.

Men in black armor jumped off the Pelicans and formed a defensive perimeter. One of the black armored figures approached him followed by three others.

"Sirs." the Spartan stood ramrod straight as he was approached by several of his superiors. His HUD had been able to identify each one by their rank and name, that is if it was their real identity, you could never really tell with ONI spooks.

"At ease Spartan." the lead one spoke, Captain Royce spoke. It sounded male, but that didn't mean that the person under the helmet was using a synthesized voice to speak.

The one in front motioned for several medics to take Ishii and Jack. They moved with out question and went to the civilians. The medics began to take them away, but not before Jack shouted "Yes, I want to be a Spartan."

This outburst had drawn the attention of several men and his superiors. The medics ignored the outburst and quickly hauled him and Ishii to a Pelican.

"He wants to be a Spartan?" the Captain asked. Knowing that full well that 267 might have leaked a small portion of Intel on how SPARTAN III's were created.

"He wants to be a Spartan." 267 answered flatly.

"I will see what I can do." Royce said before turning his full attention on the Spartan. "Were taking the Pelicans' back to the ONI stealth ship _The Unseen Hand_ for a triple OMEGA class situation."

The Spartan recalled the name of _The Unseen Hand_ it was a ship that he had spent most of his career on. It was his home away from home. He even had his own special room like the other members of his Alpha unit. That was were he kept all of his trophies, and where Antilife's horn would soon be joining.

He followed Royce onto a separated Pelican from Ishii and Jack. One of the medics was doing a quick scan on him and from the look on his face he 267 could only assume that he was going to have to undergo some major surgery or a long recovery time. However the thought that occupied the Spartan's mind the most was the triple OMEGA. The Spartan knew the full ramifications of a triple OMGEA class. It was a situation in which all assets were expendable in accomplishment of the goal.

"What is the triple OMEGA situation sir?" the Spartan questioned.

The next sentence made the Spartan's blood run cold.

"The Covenant have found Earth."

666

Well this brings an end to my first story. I hope you all enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know put several references for another crossover of Spartan 267's past. I have no intention of writing about the possible Avatar crossover. I will let one of the reader's have their shot at writing the story. My only request is that if you start writing it that you finish it. Also I will let anyone use my character in any of their stories. My request for this is that you don't kill him off.

To give you a taste of the sequel I will attempt to write I will make it war of the Humans and Covenant Separatists against the Covenant Loyalists, the Flood, and the full armies of Hell. I plan to include all three members with war to reform the Four Horsemen Spartan Group Gamma. I will also include other Spartan's with this story. This story will also have a few characters from the Halo universe, namely the Master Chief. So basically I except there to be a lot of blood and mayhem.

Once again I thank you all for reading my story.


End file.
